In Barcelona, Bogota and elsewhere, the best climate activist is a good urban planner.

The session will also showcase the experiences of two leading cities - Bogota and Barcelona - which are, in their own context and style, experimenting with new ways of planning and creating green and thriving neighbourhoods.
The latest IPCC report states that by adopting a better urban planning model cities could reduce GHG emissions by 25% by 2050. In some parts of the world land use reforms could even be the most impactful climate actions cities can take to tackle emissions.
Urban planning is not a separate emissions sector, but a cross-cutting enabler of emissions reductions and increased resilience. For instance:
- through approaches such as TOD and 15-minute city, urban planners can reduce emissions from transport by shortening distances and enabling mode shift.
- through a gentle densification urban planners promote smaller housing units and shared walls which in turn limit energy use in buildings
- urban planners are also key to preparing cities for extreme climate risks. For example, as cities are on average made up of only 40% of public spaces, deploying nature-based solutions at scale and reducing urban heat islands requires cities to regulate how private lands are developed so that they contribute to the overall adaptation efforts. Making data-informed land use planning decisions is also key to limiting flooding risk and landslides. This is especially critical in Global South cities, as 90% of the urban expansion happens near extreme hazard-prone areas such as wetlands and other flood-prone areas.
The session will provide many concrete examples of how city planners across the world have adopted climate-responsive land use policies and urban design approaches and are reversing the 20th-century model that are no longer fit for today. This prevailing ‘modernist’ urbanism approach promotes urban sprawl, car-oriented planning and over-specialisation of land use, and has massively contributed to climate change as well as other important challenges cities are facing today such as air pollution, long commutes, urban segregation and lack of amenities, services and job opportunities in many neighbourhoods.
Far from grand theories, Bogota and Barcelona counter this outdated model by changing their land use policies and adopting proximity planning approaches grounded in sustainability, social and gender equity and community engagement. Their groundbreaking initiatives are paving the way for a much-needed turning point in urban planning. One that will replace fragmented zoning with 'complete neighbourhoods', car-oriented streets with green and people-centred public spaces and long-term, top-down planning with flexible and participative approaches.