Monday 30 April 2012

EU-China Partnership on Sustainable Urbanisation

This Thursday, 3 May, will see the launch event of the EU-China Partnership on Sustainable Urbanisation with the objective of confronting Chinese and European perspectives on how to build better cities.

Energy Cities will be represented by its President Eckart Würzner , Mayor of Heidelberg and its Executive Director Gérard Magnin .

The conference will be divided into four parts :

An opening session with high level speakers including Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang; President of the Committee of the Regions Mercedes Bresso; President of the European Economic and Social Committee Staffan Nilsson, and European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger.

A session on sustainable city planning and the search for new models to provide a sustainable, low-carbon environment to city-dwellers. The speakers of this session will include : Guo Jinlong; Mayor of Beijing, China ; Ilmar Reepalu, Mayor of Malmö, Sweden ; Zhang Lijun, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection, China ; David O’Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of the European External Action Service (EEAS) ; Xu Qin, Mayor of Shenzhen, China ; Gérard Magnin, Executive Director of Energy-Cities.

A session on urban infrastructure and mobility, touching on the key infrastructure challenges affecting modern cities such as traffic and waste management. Featured speakers include: Gao Jian, Vice President of the National Development Bank of China ; Jan Olbrycht, MEP and Chairman of the European Parliament Urban Intergroup ; Qiu Baoxing, Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development ; Eckart Würzner, Mayor of Heidelberg, Germany, and President of Energy Cities ; Ge Honglin, Mayor of Chendgu, China ; Javier Maroto Aranzabal, Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.

A closing session led by Philip Lowe, European Commission Director General for Energy and Xu Xianping, Vice Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, China.

This high level conference is co-organised by the National Development and Reform Commission, Friends of Europe and the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

For more information about this event, click HERE.