Urban Greening Plans: A Potential Device towards a Sustainable and Co-Produced Future

Within the last few years, there has been increasing attention towards climate change and strategies enabling climate neutrality and biodiversity development. Green spaces are one of the main elements in achieving these ambitious goals. Their role has become increasingly relevant in facing climate change, especially considering that Europe aims to be the first continent to be climate-neutral by 2050. In doing so, recently, the European Commission adopted different regulations with a specific focus on the role of green spaces, introducing strategies and activities for sustainable development. The article investigates the role of green spaces in urban planning, considering three main perspectives in dealing with them: (i) the nature of their property, (ii) their ecological nature, and (iii) their social and public nature. After describing green spaces as crucial for contemporary urban development, this article will introduce a potential planning tool enabling the combination of the three different ‘natures’: the Urban Greening Plan. The article presents the two case studies of Barcelona and Paris, which have already adopted this instrument. The article highlights the potential of Urban Greening Plans to restore nature and biodiversity while engaging different stakeholders in co-creation processes for more sustainable development. It also critically introduces a variety of open questions that require further investigations and analyses.