New challenges, old dilemmas? Building climate change adaptive capacity through spatial planning and evaluation

Until recently, sustainable development (SD) has come to represent the dominant discourse within the fields of environmental policymaking and spatial planning. However, the growing pressure brought by climate risk is questioning the status of SD as the organising principle for human development and global governance. On the other hand, climate change mitigation and adaptation policies are expanding the scope of planning and evaluation and providing them with a different articulation of role and purpose. Focuses come and go in policy discourses and the rise of climate change has raised several questions about the negotiability of environmental conditions, and altered the profile and scope of environmental concerns in the name of carbon control and critical vulnerabilities management. This chapter aims to elaborate on the extent to which these ongoing discursive struggles are prompting innovation in spatial plans to deliver climate adaptation, while also exploring both formal (e.g. environmental assessment, sustainability appraisal, climate impact assessment) and informal evaluation practices for climate change adaptation in Europe. A tentative conceptual framework for climate-adaptive spatial planning is sketched in the concluding remarks, by discussing the context and process conditions that are key to shape climate adaptation in terms of adjustments, transitions or path-finding trajectories.