Scales, strategies and actions for effective energy planning: A review Maria Rita Pasimeni a , Irene Petrosillo b,n , Roberta Aretano b , Teodoro Semeraro b , Antonella De Marco a , Nicola Zaccarelli b , Giovanni Zurlini b a Department of Innovation Engineering, Ecotekne, University of Salento, Prov.le Lecce Monteroni, Lecce, Italy b Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, Ecotekne, Laboratory of Landscape Ecology, University of Salento, Prov.le Lecce Monteroni, Lecce, Italy HIGHLIGHTS  Energy production and consumption can directly or indirectly affect climate change.  Energy sector is influenced directly and indirectly by changes in climate conditions.  Energy sector and climate change affect and limit alternative uses of land, causing land-use changes.  The most suitable spatial scale for energy planning is the municipal level requiring short-term perspectives.  Several research recommendations to deal with the complexity of energy-land-use-climate change issue are proposed. article info Article history: Received 25 October 2012 Received in revised form 23 September 2013 Accepted 10 October 2013 Keywords: Adaptive energy planning Spatial–temporal scales Energy–land use–climate change interaction abstract This paper is a review of the most recent literature on the interaction between climate change, land-use and energy, based on the analysis of papers collected through the most relevant scientific literature databases. A total of 114 papers published between 2000 and 2011 were reviewed. The aims of this review are: in general (1) to identify the different research topics that have been developed related to the interaction between climate change, land-use and energy; more specifically, (2) to analyze what are the most suitable spatial and temporal scales of investigation to focus on for actions and strategies to reduce critical issues in the field of energy and environment; (3) to identify which actions and strategies are deemed as the most appropriate to mitigate critical issues in energy and environment; and given the research gaps found in the review, (4) to propose research recommendations in the context of effective climate-energy planning. We argue that there are certain gaps and needs for a “nested” environmental governance. It is necessary to understand how different environmental policies overlap and how they can be integrated in order to verify whether there are conflicting targets that may negate each other in the long term. & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The complex nature of connections between land-use transfor- mation, climate change and energy requires new investigations into the possible relationships between them from global to local levels. Recently, this issue has been attracting the attention of governments as well as scholars attempting to adopt an integrated and adaptive energy and climate policy. In this regard, the European Union has proposed a sustainable and competitive climate–energy policy, with the aim to make Europe a model of sustainable development for the 21st century. In this context, the European Commission has adopted three energy targets (20–20– 20 targets) to be achieved by 2020. In particular, within 2020 the European Commission aims at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% compared to 1990; increasing the share of final energy consumption from renewable energy sources by 20% compared to 2005; and a 20% improvement in energy efficiency compared to 2005 (EC, 2007a, 2007b). The 27 European Member States (MS) have accepted these targets, and in 2010 they have been included in the “Europe 2020 Strategy” (EC, 2010). This strategy is an important initiative that sets specific targets for three mutually reinforcing priorities, smart growth, inclusive growth and sustainable growth. These targets must be measur- able, capable of reflecting the diversity of MS condition and based on sufficiently reliable data for comparison purposes (EC, 2010). In particular, by defining sustainable growth as promotion of “a more efficient resource use, greener and more competitive economy” (EC, 2010), the European strategy can be seen as the driving force behind the formulation of national climate policy in developed countries outside Europe (Egenhofer, 2010), as was the case of the Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol Energy Policy 0301-4215/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.027 n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ39 0832 298896; fax: þ39 0832 298626. E-mail address: irene.petrosillo@unisalento.it (I. Petrosillo). Please cite this article as: Pasimeni, M.R., et al., Scales, strategies and actions for effective energy planning: A review. Energy Policy (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.027i Energy Policy ∎ (∎∎∎∎) ∎∎∎–∎∎∎