Scaling innovation in climate change planning: Serious gaming in Portland and Copenhagen

For over 20 years, cities around the globe have been developing and implementing planning strategies to address climate change by primarily focusing on mitigation, but in the last few years adaptation has risen rapidly as a strategic priority all over the world (Carmin et al., 2012; Biesbroek et al., 2009). Modern municipal planning authorities have come under increasing pressure to innovate and respond to a growing demand from citizens and politicians alike to respond effectively to the climate change challenge, a challenge that includes balancing the synergies, conflicts, and trade-offs between mitigation, adaptation, and sustainable urban development. A number of complex governance issues are present within this field, including: unclear legal and regulatory environments (Carmin et al., 2012), new types of cooperative relationships between municipal governments, utilities, the finance and insurance sectors, citizens, non-governmental organizations, and private businesses (Betsill and Bulkeley, 2007; Juhola and Westerhoff, 2011; Rosenzweig et al., 2011), conflicting risk perceptions (moral hazard), the sciencepolicy interface in a new arena of planning (Kahan et al., 2012), and negotiating trade-offs between mitigation, adaptation, and sustainable development goals (Swart and Raes, 2007; Tol, 2005; Wilbanks and Sathaye, 2007).