urban carbon

[SteveT.]

Planning for a Low Carbon Future
... is the title of a presentation being held under the auspices of
the Milton Keynes Peace and Justice Network which may be of interest
to Transitioners. Details below.
Planning for a Low Carbon Future: Reconciling the interests of the
developed and developing world
– Chris Gossop
Friday 9 April 2010, 8.45 pm
The Well at Willen, Room A, Newport Road, Willen, Milton Keynes MK15
9AA
Chris’s presentation will draw upon the results of a world planning
congress held in Porto, Portugal in October 2009 on the theme of Low
Carbon Cities. Organised by ISOCARP, an international society for the
world’s urban planners, this focused on the carbon issue and what can
be done to tackle the related threat to our long term survival as a
species. For despite recent controversies about some of the data,
there is overwhelming evidence about the links between man’s
activities, the build-up of greenhouse gases and the warming of the
climate system. And amongst the limited number of things that they
could agree upon, world leaders at Copenhagen did at least recognise
the critical need to limit the global average temperature rise to no
more than 2° C above pre-industrial levels.
As the General Rapporteur for the Congress, Chris was responsible for
much of its professional content. With its focus on the cities where
half of the world’s growing population now live, the Congress brought
together world experts from UN agencies – HABITAT as well as the IPCC
– and from the European Environment Agency, and from business. It also
attracted planners from around the world who gave a total of some 100
papers in five workshops. The final Congress Statement built upon
these inputs and was a powerful message that was communicated around
the world.
This presentation will focus upon that Statement and its ‘Seven
Ingredients for Low Carbon Cities’. The necessary action will have to
be on many fronts; this is a complex recipe. To make the product
digestible, it will have to link action at the local level to
strategies at the global, it will have to be seen as fair and relevant
to all of the world’s regions – the developed and the poor developing
countries as well as the fast industrialising developing countries –
and it will have to deliver. Chris’s presentation will include case
studies of international approaches to low carbon cities, approaches
which may show the way for the mainstream of the future.
*****
The presentation will be preceded by the Well’s Open Table at 7.30 pm
and the Milton Keynes Peace and Justice Network AGM at 8.15pm.
Open Table is an invariably delicious vegetarian meal in the Well’s
Refectory (donations to The Well’s hospitality fund welcomed). Please
give at least 24 hours notice if you’re going for the meal on 01908
242190 or book...@thewellatwillen.org.uk.