ISOCARP organized on the 13th of November 2009 a half-day seminar on „Low Carbon Cities“ in the building of the Directorate-General for Regional Policy (DG Regio), European Commission, Brussels, on the initiative of the ISOCARP Brussels Liaison Office.
Dirk Engelke started the seminar with a short introduction on ISOCARP, followed by Chris Gossop, congress general rapporteur, who presented the conclusions of the Porto Congress. Two case studies on “Netherlands 2020” (Michäel Meijer) and Cambridge (Chris Gossop) illustrated the conclusions; finally Didier Vancutsem presented some key-findings of the congress in a European perspective.
15 persons from the DG Regio, the DG TREN (Transports), the DG Research attended the seminar, as well as a representant of the Covenant of Mayors (http://www.eumayors.eu/), a commitment by signatory towns and cities to go beyond the objectives of EU energy policy in terms of reduction in CO2 emissions through enhanced energy efficiency and cleaner energy production and use.
Mr. Wladyslaw Piskorz, Head of Unit „Urban Development – Territorial Cohesion“ in the Directorate-General for Regional Policy, thanked ISOCARP warmly for this initiative; he appreciated the discussion and input of ISOCARP as knowledge partner of the European Commission and proposed to increase these cooperation; more opportunities will appear in the future.
ISOCARP thanks the Directorate-General for Regional Policy for the support, especially Mrs Corinne Hermant, DG Regio Urban Audit, who coordinated this event in the Commission.
The ISOCARP Brussels Liaison Office will continue the debate on the future of urban development in Europe in the next months; several activities are projected in 2010.

Didier Vancutsem
Head of ISOCARP Brussels Liaison Office