Planning Policy Statement: Planning and Climate Change
Supplement to Planning Policy Statement 1

Introduction

Planning Policy Statement 1 (PPS1): Delivering Sustainable Development sets out the overarching planning policies on the delivery of sustainable development through the planning system. This consultation seeks views and comments on a draft Planning Policy Statement (PPS) Planning and Climate Change which will supplement PPS1.

Planning and Climate Change sets out how spatial planning should contribute to reducing emissions and stabilising climate change (mitigation) and take into account the unavoidable consequences (adaptation). The consultation forms part of a wider package of action being taken forward by Communities and Local Government to help deliver the Government’s ambition of achieving zero carbon development. This includes the Code for Sustainable Homes and a consultation document, Building a Greener Future, which sets out how planning, building regulations and the Code for Sustainable Homes can drive change, innovation and deliver improvements to the environment. Details of these documents’ availability are at Part 5.

Planning and Climate Change

Climate change is real and is happening now. The Stern Review, in assembling an overwhelming body of scientific evidence, makes it clear that human activity is changing the world’s climate and, as these changes deepen and intensify, there will be profound and rising costs for global and national prosperity, people’s health and the natural environment. Even with effective policies for reducing emissions in place, the world will still experience significant climate change over the coming decades from emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases already released. Equally, the Review makes it plain that we can act to avoid the worst of these costs. It sets out how and demonstrates that the price of doing so is much less than doing nothing.

Effective spatial planning is one of the many elements required in a successful response to climate change. But used positively it has a significant contribution to make. Planning and Climate Change sets out how spatial planning, in providing for the new homes, jobs and infrastructure needed by communities, should help shape places with lower carbon emissions and resilient to the climate change now accepted as inevitable. Spatial planning, regionally and locally, provides the framework for integrating new development with other programmes that influence the nature of places and how they function. This means that it has a central part to play in enabling local action and in creating an attractive environment for innovation and investment by the private sector.

View the full PPS1 report (pdf 1.5MB)