Planning low-carbon, resilient cities
Planning Cities to Cut Emissions and Boost Liveability
Mayors in C40 cities are using their planning powers to promote compact, polycentric urban forms with mixed-use, walkable, and interconnected centres. This enables residents to access jobs, services, and green spaces within a short walk or bike ride, while facilitating the use of public transport. These approaches reduce infrastructure costs, improve efficiency and socio-economic resilience, cut emissions by up to 25%, and create more human-centred communities.
By 2050, 2.5 billion more people will be living in urban areas, effectively doubling the built stock of cities. Conventional planning, which fuels sprawl and car dependency, is no longer sustainable. The statistics are clear: urban areas are expanding faster than population growth and could triple in size if left unchecked, while monocentric cities that concentrate activities in central areas and separate jobs, housing, and amenities in distinct zones dominate worldwide.
Sustainable urban planning offers a clear path to reverse this trend and build more liveable and equitable cities for all.
Designing Cities for Climate-Resilience and Inclusion
Many cities are rethinking how they plan and design urban areas to adapt to growing climate risks. They are restricting construction in high-risk zones, protecting natural land to buffer extreme weather, and expanding access to adequate, affordable housing to improve resilience for the most vulnerable.
This shift comes in response to long-standing challenges: urban expansion increasingly occurs in hazardous zones – such as landslide-prone hillsides and low-lying coastal areas – often outpacing growth in safer locations. In the Global South, up to 90% of new urban development takes place in high-risk areas. At the same time, cities are losing natural defences: urban green space declined by 30% between 1990 and 2020, weakening their ability to absorb heat and water.
As a result, millions of people are exposed to danger. With planning systems often struggling to keep pace with rapid population growth, around one in five people worldwide now live in informal settlements or inadequate housing, further increasing their vulnerability.
Cities are responding with risk-informed, nature-positive, and inclusive planning – proving that thoughtful urban design can reduce hazards, enhance resilience, and create safer, more equitable communities.
Planning strategies that deliver climate action and equity
Cities understand that effective planning requires policies and actions that cut emissions, build resilience, and improve inclusion and socio-economic opportunity for urban residents. Successful approaches must:
Adopt regenerative urbanism and compact urban model
If left unchecked, urban expansion could triple global land cover by mid-century, making it urgent to prioritise regeneration and densification over sprawl. Cities can achieve this by restricting development in natural areas surrounding cities through growth boundaries or green belts, and by promoting infill and brownfield redevelopment, permitting higher-density and multi-unit housing typologies. These policies can reduce car dependency and emissions, while also helping cities address housing shortages, supporting more inclusive and sustainable urban growth.
Prioritise development near transit
Transit-oriented development concentrates housing, jobs, and services near high-quality public transport. This reduces car dependence and associated emissions while improving access to opportunity. Cities are using planning regulations to direct growth to areas with existing or planned transit infrastructure, with emphasis on affordable housing to prevent displacement.
Create 15-minute neighbourhoods
Complete neighbourhoods provide public amenities, essential shops, green space, and a mix of economic activities within a short walk or bike ride. This planning model cuts down vehicle trips, supports local businesses, and ensures all residents can access daily needs, regardless of their income or mobility. Cities are implementing policies that require mixed-use development and neighbourhood-scale services, while designing public spaces that foster active mobility and social interactions.
Restrict development in hazard-prone areas
Cities are growing in areas exposed to climate hazards. In the Global South, 90% of urban expansion is taking place in or near hazard-prone areas. Climate-responsive planning is informed by reliable climate data and regulates development in areas of climate risk, including floodplains, fire-prone zones, and low-lying coastal regions at risk from sea-level rise. Cities are steering growth toward safer locations while protecting land for nature to buffer against climate impacts.
Secure and protect urban nature
Between 1990 and 2020, green spaces in and around cities decreased by 28.7%. Planning policies that protect nature and require green spaces and permeable soil in new developments offer many benefits. They cool cities during heat, manage stormwater during floods, improve air quality, and enhance community health and wellbeing. Cities are establishing minimum green space requirements and protecting natural ecosystems within and around their cities.
Tackling the housing crisis through inclusionary planning
Many cities are facing a huge and unmet demand for housing, putting large segments of the population at risk of marginalisation and increasing their vulnerability to extreme climate hazards. To address this, cities are increasingly adopting inclusionary urban planning, which requires or incentivises new developments and major regeneration projects to incorporate affordable housing for middle- and low-income households.
Upgrading informal settlements to protect vulnerable communities
With one-third of urban residents in the Global South living in informal settlements, planning strategies must improve living conditions while carefully managing the risk of displacement. Cities are working with local communities to upgrade infrastructure, secure land tenure, and provide essential services. Efforts focus on integrating informal areas into citywide planning while respecting existing community structures.
Connect with urban planning programmes and networks
C40’s work on urban planning and design provides different entry points for cities to implement climate-responsive strategies, policies and interventions, spanning technical support, advocacy work and peer-to-peer learning.
Land Use Planning Network
Connect with cities accelerating the development and implementation of sustainable and inclusive land-use policies.
C40 and UN-Habitat Urban Planning Accelerator
Be among the world’s leading cities in climate-responsive urban planning and get targeted support to achieve your objectives.
Green and Thriving Neighbourhoods
Get support to adopt 15-minute neighbourhoods and proximity planning that cut emissions, boost wellbeing, and strengthen community resilience.
Jameel C40 Urban Planning Climate Labs
Get support to incorporate climate action into master plans across South-West Asia and beyond.
Reinventing Cities
Take part in the global design competition inviting teams of professionals to transform underutilised sites into innovative, zero-carbon, and resilient urban developments on the ground.
Youth Reinventing Cities
Join the C40 global competitions for youth and students to share ideas and develop solutions that transform urban areas into green and thriving neighbourhoods.
Questions about urban planning and design programmes?
Get in touch with the C40 Urban Planning and Design team to learn more about the programme at upd@c40.org.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can cities implement transit-oriented development without causing displacement?
Cities are pairing transit-oriented development policies with affordable housing requirements, tenant protections, and community land trusts. Planning regulations can mandate that a percentage of new development near transit includes affordable units, while anti-displacement measures protect existing residents from rising costs. C40’s frameworks help cities design equitable transit-oriented strategies.
What planning powers do cities actually have over urban form?
Cities control zoning regulations, building codes, development permissions, infrastructure investment decisions, and public land disposition. These powers allow mayors to direct where and how growth occurs, require mixed-use development, mandate green space, restrict building in hazard zones, and prioritise transit-oriented patterns. The specific powers vary by national and regional context.
How do 15-minute neighbourhoods work in practice?
15-minute neighbourhood policies require mixed-use development with residential, commercial, and community services within walking or cycling distance. Cities implement this through zoning changes that allow neighbourhood-scale shops and services in residential areas, requirements for amenities in new developments, and public realm improvements that make walking and cycling safe and pleasant.
How can planning address informal settlements equitably?
Effective approaches involve working with communities to improve infrastructure, secure land tenure, provide services, and integrate informal areas into citywide systems. Cities are conducting participatory planning processes, investing in upgrading rather than demolition, and ensuring planning frameworks recognise and support informal settlements rather than treating them as problems to eliminate.
What’s the relationship between urban planning and other climate actions?
Planning decisions enable or constrain all other climate actions. Compact, transit-oriented development makes public transport viable, reduces building energy needs through efficient urban form, protects nature that cools cities and manages stormwater, and creates neighbourhoods where walking and cycling are practical. Planning sets the foundation for transport, buildings, waste, and adaptation strategies to succeed.
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