L’adaptation au changement climatique par les outils du renouvellement urbain à Bruxelles : retours d’expérience relatifs aux Plans d’action communaux

Over the past decade, Brussels municipalities have adopted Climate Action Plans following the regional Air-Climate-Energy Plan (PACE, 2023). These plans were introduced into an already dense institutional landscape composed of long-standing urban renewal programmes (Neighbourhood Contracts and Urban Renewal Contracts). The study analyses how these overlapping instruments operate in practice and how local administrations translate climate objectives into concrete actions despite administrative complexity and limited financial resources. Based on interviews with climate coordinators, urban renewal services and regional administrations in five municipalities (Saint-Gilles, Forest, Ixelles, Schaerbeek and the City of Brussels), the research highlights an incremental and opportunity-driven implementation of adaptation policies. Rather than following a comprehensive long-term plan, municipalities integrate adaptation measures into ongoing projects when funding, technical feasibility and institutional coordination allow it. This approach enables the gradual diffusion of climate concerns across public action but also produces fragmented outcomes dependent on political and budgetary cycles. The study identifies urban renewal programmes as a key operational lever for adaptation due to their stable funding and strong territorial anchoring, yet currently under-used for climate purposes. Strengthening the articulation between climate plans and urban renewal tools, stabilising resources and better integrating social vulnerabilities appear as essential conditions to achieve more coherent and socially just urban climate adaptation.