2021 has been a year marked with extreme weather events of all categories – heat waves, droughts, storms, floods, tornados, etc. They took place across the globe, in both hemispheres, and from the tropics to the polar caps. They are affecting the urbanized regions unevenly – such as in the Middle East, where droughts have always been a problem but are now even worse, and in the face of rapidly growing populations – but they are affecting the whole world. The extraordinary scale, intensity and frequency of the events has forced scientists, mainstream media, political leaders and the public to
realise that the climate HAS changed. Climate change is no more a prediction but a crisis.

So, 2021 has been another ‘different’ year, in the wake of the also ‘different’ year 2020, when a novel coronavirus triggered the Covid global pandemic, with enormous public health, economic and political consequences. But both years have also been hailed as an excellent opportunity for radical societal and economic transformation. Disappointingly, we have yet to see strategic plans and actual development in that direction, rather than attempts to return to the ‘old normal’.
Instead of bold and transformative visions, we have so far seen in most nations and cities shock and bewilderment and the stalling of spatial development plans. Instead of mobilizing planning more than ever, we have seen planning paralysis. Not only have entire nations, regions and cities been put
into lockdowns, but planning itself has been locked down.

What will it take to unlock the immense potential of spatial planning?

ISOCARP congresses traditionally end with a declaration, but this one is like no other. This year’s Declaration is an appeal to the planning profession; affiliated professions; governments at all levels; NGOs and civic society; mass media, and the public – to recognize and address the threats and risks humanity faces; realise and acknowledge the critical role of CITIES in our multiple crises; and recognise the capacity and power of city and regional PLANNING to show us the way out of this dire situation.

Cities have been the hotbeds of the pandemic, but also the most effective places to impose public health countermeasures. Cities must also be recognised as the foci of our worsening global climate emergency – not only as the leading sources of GHG emissions, but also due to their crucial role in the global climate response. They are now emerging as the primary victim of the new climate, experiencing disproportional levels of disruption and human casualty. But,, cities are also the solution. If we drastically reduce their metabolism, we stand a chance to stop the acceleration of global heating. And if we prepare them for now inevitable impacts of the changing climate, we can significantly reduce the human and material losses in the future. Most cities have the institutions, the knowledge and the resources to undertake the level of mobilization necessary. Those which do not have them, can be assisted at the national and international level.

We need a global and urgent mobilization of all resources to implement the radical transformation of cities in the face of climate emergency. This is the hour for Planning like no other time in the history of cities and planned development. Significant changes, far-reaching decisions and transitions are lying ahead all around the world. This is the hour of visioning, diagnosing, participating, implementing, monitoring, evaluating and re-planning and in short – practicing integrated planning and (re)development like never before. On a global scale, in thousands of cities, towns and metropolitan regions. It is the hour of the city, and of regional, spatial, territorial, and environmental planners.

Physical planning must be given governmental priority,authority and funding for its power to be unlocked – as the theme of this Congress suggests; otherwise, planning’s historic role of supporting civilisation and the future of our planet will not be possible. To unlock and enact the special role of planning in ‘saving the world as we know it’, we must declare a global urban climate emergency. Under this regime, we need to allocate at least equal attention to adaptation and resilience as to mitigation and sustainability, and must recognize that climate change has now been in a runaway, self-perpetuating, and irreversible process for a long time.

Towards the above dual aim of resilience and sustainability, spatial planners must identify, investigate and consider a broader than ever range of territorial strategies. Some of them will be from the fringes of planning theory and practice. For example, de-centralisation of infrastructure; de-concentration of population and assets; re-localisation of vital supply chains, re-generation of supporting ecosystems (‘nature-based solutions’); de-carbonisation of urban metabolism; regional approaches to strategic territorial planning; perhaps even de-growing the economy. While on the face of it these strategies may sound anti-business, they actually contain enormous new opportunities for – and in fact, cannot be implemented without – the private sector.

All along, we must, of course, bear in mind that the applicability of these ideas in most cities, regions and nations will significantly vary. Cities in developing countries will have different needs and different priorities. Concepts we assume to be universal and technical – such as ‘urban metabolism’ or ‘ecological footprint’ – are actually political and value-laden. The recommended policies must be contextual. The balance between the long-term visions and short-term priorities will also look different in lesser and higher-income cities.

ISOCARP calls its members, all planning professionals worldwide, decision-makers in policy and planning, business leaders, fellows in academia, and development professionals. This needs to be done in your local context considering the existing regional and national framework, while keeping global goals in mind by referring to existing international documents, such as:

  • the International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning;
  • Global State of National Urban Policy;
  • and other documents by UN-Habitat; OECD; World Bank; Cities Alliance; UCLG; ICLEI, etc.

Above all, let the regional view and local wisdom guide Planning as never before – in what are times as never witnessed before. Un-locking planning is about un-locking local initiatives.