The French government encourages cities and other regional areas with more than 50,000 inhabitants to establish strategies regarding climate and energy. To this end, local planning/zoning regimes (Plan Local d’Urbanisme) must promote improvement works regarding buildings’ energy performance.

Energy efficiency is also promoted in local planning/zoning regimes. For this purpose, the documentation of the planning/zoning regime must contain environmental provisions. In addition, since 2005, any mayor in France has been entitled to develop any green policy to improve the energy performance and promote the use of renewable energy. For instance, as mentioned in "CO2 and Energy Targets", Paris is in the process of enacting a specific “bioclimatic” local planning regime, “Plan Local d’Urbanisme bioclimatique,” to create a more energy-efficient city and make Paris a carbon-neutral city by 2050 by promoting, notably, renovation and low-carbon construction and by encouraging the development of renewable energies and a zero-waste approach. The purpose of this “bioclimatic” local planning regime is also to achieve the objective of 10 square meters of green space per inhabitant by increasing the amount of breathing space and cool areas and by encouraging green spaces and the presence of flora and fauna.

All planning/zoning regimes must promote energy performance by producing renewable energy sources and reduce CO2 gas emissions. It is also forbidden to ban sustainable constructions or installations.

All local planning/zoning regimes can make builders comply with their energy performance requirements, even if these are stricter than what the law provides for.