An Analysis of Problems Related to Climate Change in Serbian Planning Documents

Abstract

Tackling the climate change represents one of the top priorities in the politics of the international community nowadays. The expected effects of climate change are complex and far-reaching; it is therefore not surprising that various global initiatives are focusing on these issues. In addition to the activities aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change, the need for urgent development of systems for the adaptation to these changes has become imminent. Numerous authors emphasise the role of spatial planning in the process of adaptation to climate changes due to its integrativity and sector policies. The correlation between the adaptation to climate changes and other development issues and the necessity for a comprehensive solution are particularly challenging to spatial planning. Consequently, there is a need to change the traditional methodology of planning and develop a new one which is capable of dealing with the dynamics of climate change and which will use certain climate indicators when making decisions related to space. To determine the extent to which spatial plans consider the climate change issues, this paper uses the 3A model (Moser and Luers 2008) and analyses the Regional Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia and the Regional Spatial Plan of the Republic of Srpska based on 30 criteria sorted into 3 categories—Awareness, Analysis, Action. The results have shown that the role of spatial planning in the adaptation to climate changes is still limited, the awareness of the importance of this phenomenon is still low and that the analysed plans put forward a limited number of actions as responses to climate changes. The goal of the paper is to point out certain flaws in the current planning policies as well as to emphasise the importance of considering climate change issues in the process of spatial plan development.