Despite slow movement in the international negotiations, growth in action on climate change is being generated at all scales. Moving into delivery requires decisions about routes and strategic entry points – the ad hoc ‘niche’ approach of projects is no longer sufficient. Increasingly in developing countries there is wider and deeper engagement by governments, donor agencies, the private sector and civil society organisations in climate change issues. Different stakeholders show varied capacities, preferences, risk perceptions and diverse action strategies. Planning strategies that reflect local, social, economic, institutional and physical system contexts are essential.Donors have been actively leading mainstreaming processes on the adaptation side since 2003, and there is well developed policy guidance from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on integrating climate change into development cooperation. The increased interest in planning also reflects the emerging low carbon dimension to climate change planning – as energy planning issues get revisited in a carbon-constrained world.This paper identifies the core challenges arising from planning for climate change before considering the overarching challenge of ‘uncertainty’ in climate science. It also reviews activities in several key areas of relevant planning experience for climate change:

national planning and autonomous action
low carbon development planning
poverty reduction
climate change adaptation issues and entry points for planning.

The paper concludes by presenting lessons from existing practice, and identifies gaps in knowledge and learning and sets out ten critical dimensions of planning:

Who are the main players within countries and how can planning take place?
What planning related initiatives are under way?
What is the frame of action? How specific is it to climate change?
What system are you interested in?
What is the most effective scale for action?
How will the climate change intervention affect poverty dynamics?
What are the underlying development narrative/theories of change for which you are planning?
How can coordination be achieved?
Can autonomous action be planned?
What will the future climate be in 2030? How do you deal with uncertainty?
Is it more effective to increase resilience than devise specific climate change strategies?