ABSTRACT
A theme of this book has been that the spatial planning response to climate change needs to be seen in the context of the ideals and principles of sustainable development. To the complex and contestable precepts of sustainable development, climate change adds further complexity and uncertainty, which are magnified through the interaction with social, political and economic systems. In this chapter, we look at the scope for policy learning in supporting the development and implementation of climate-change responsive spatial planning policy. As Dryzek argues in the context of envir on mentalism, ‘we need institutions and discourses which are capable of learning – not least about their own shortcomings’ (Dryzek, 2005, p. 232). Responding to the challenge of sustainable development has required significant change in thinking and concepts within spatial planning, and responding to the particular issue of climate change represents a new challenge for policy learning.
