Climate Change in Spatial Planning of Serbia

Countries worldwide deal with climate change issues through different strategies and policies, where spatial planning is one of the important tools in combating this global challenge at the local, regional, and national levels. This study presents a complete review of national and regional planning acts in Serbia regarding their reference to climate change issues. The analysis of national and regional spatial plans, accompanying strategic environmental assessments, and implementation plans provides bases for proposing climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. The review showed that climate change is addressed in the majority of analyzed spatial plans, especially in those adopted after the national spatial plan (since 2010). Climate change has received increased attention in the process of spatial planning in Serbia, nevertheless, certain topics are addressed more often than others. Therefore, the contribution to combating the growing climate change impact could be strengthened in the next generation of spatial plans. The forthcoming national spatial plan will provide a good foundation for it.