Strategic Planning for Climate and Nature: Which Factors Strengthen Local Political Leadership to Avoid Loss of Nature in Their Land-Use Planning? (No-Net-Land Take)?

The ambitions of the Paris Agreement and the European ambition of achieving no net land take (NNLT) by 2050 necessitates a profound transformation in national planning strategies and instruments, effectively imposing definitive limits to growth (Lacoere et al., 2024). In countries where land-use authority is largely decentralized to the local level, this objective further demands a fundamental reorientation of municipal planning practices, emphasizing a more strategic deployment of local instruments. This article examines how Norwegian municipalities—both in general and through an in-depth analysis of two front-runner cities—mobilize land-use planning tools to integrate nature considerations and curb land take. Our findings indicate that these frontrunners leverage more robust and up-to-date knowledge of local ecosystems, and foster improved professional–political dialogue throughout planning processes. This, in turn, strengthens political ownership of local nature policies and enables a more strategic application of planning instruments to steer private market actors and businesses toward sustainable land-use outcomes.