November 9th 2011, Brussels

Organised by Energy Cities and the European Parliament URBAN Intergroup.

A one day seminar gathering Energy Cities’ members and representatives of key European public, private and associative stakeholders, as well as EU institutions. Participants from various disciplines and positions will be invited to share their understanding and views of the Energy Roadmap as well as present and confront their own visions towards 2040 - 2050.

Objectives

The 6th IMAGINE seminar will deal with the following questions:

• What is and should be the role of the local level in the European Energy Roadmap 2050?
• What if European local authorities were to perform a similar exercise and develop Local Energy Roadmaps 2050?
• How can public, social and economic actors work in synergy and contribute to achieve European ambitions through local and regional energy policies?
• Under which conditions is the low-energy cities with a high quality of life for all concept relevant?
  

The objective of the 6th IMAGINE seminar is to reflect on the EU Energy Roadmap 2050 with Energy Cities’ members and representatives of key European public, private and associative stakeholders, as well as EU institutions. Key questions around the role of the local level in the European Energy Roadmap 2050 will be discussed, as well as the possibility for European local authorities to perform a similar exercise and develop Local Energy Roadmaps 2050. In this debate, the contribution of public, social and economic actors to achieve European ambitions through local and regional energy policies is crucial.

Your benefits as a participant:

• Participate in the consolidation of the IMAGINE partnership.
• Have your say in the debate around the Energy Roadmap 2050.
• Benefit from key note speeches and experts insights.
• Network with European stakeholders and European local authorities representatives.
• Take time out... for inspiration.

Languages » English and French (simultaneous translation)

Cost » 100 EUR registration fee (includes coffee breaks, lunch and networking cocktails) » Free for Energy Cities’ members

Location » Management Center Europe - Rue de l'Aqueduc 118, 1050 Ixelles

Download the Programme

Download the Registration Form

Energy Cities with the support of the French Ministry for Sustainable Development published a new report on Governance and Vision: Visions of Cities towards a low-energy future.

Read more

What are low energy cities? How does the energy efficient city of the future look like?

The concept of the low energy city with a high quality of life for all was first introduced in the IMAGINE initiative Memorandum. At Energy Cities, we have adopted this concept to bridge the gap between two worlds that are still too often impervious to one another: Energy and Territories. The logic of the players from these two worlds is very different, to the point of making energy stakeholders ignore territorial issues and territorial policy makers ignore energy. Energy and climate constraints require us to rethink thoroughly our mode of development as well as our urban organisation. Sweeping changes with a far-reaching impact on our lifestyle will be necessary. ‘Weak signals’ are already visible and show the way forward. This article aims to help better understand these logics and identify ideas for progress.

Read the article in english:



Lisez l'article en français:

The Guardian has asked The Observer's experts how the world is going to change in the next 25 years. Answers are really worth reading.

How about: 'We'll play games to solve problems' or 'What constitutes a 'city' will change'?

Regarding energy issues, Chris Llewellyn Smith from Oxford University says: 'Disappointingly, with the present rate of investment in developing and deploying new energy sources, the world will still be powered mainly by fossil fuels in 25 years and will not be prepared to do without them.'

20 predictions for the next 25 years

This workshop has been an opportunity to consider points of views of different stakeholders involved in energy issues at different levels. Local authorities, NGOs, enterprises, EU institutions, etc., are linked with their actions and policies to the territory and have to engage into dialogue in order to march towards sustainability.

Read more

The 5th IMAGINE seminar took place from 22nd to 25th November 2010 in Arc-et-Senans, France.

This years, the focus was given to local action. How to engage local stakeholder, how to build on dialogue to co-construct a shared vision of the energy future of a city, a region?

Conceptual inputs were given by guest speaker Herbert Gigardet, co-founder of the World Future Council, on Regenerative Cities and Gérard Magnin, Energy Cities’ Executive Director, on Low-energy cities with a high quality of life for all, capitalizing on ‘through the years’ outputs of the IMAGINE initiative.

Inputs by Rob Hopkins, on the Transitions Towns Network, via teleconference, and presentation of experiences of Energy Cities member cities (Grand Lyon, Rennes, Munich, Figueres) started the reflection on the local IMAGINE approach.

Two experts on participative approach and multi-stakeholders dialogue, Janice Thomson from INVOLVE and Deborah Maarek, from Awareness Consulting, gave important practical inputs on how to promote and conduct engagement. This was done in group work and as an open forum.

In the end, INSPIRATION for local action was the buzz word among participants.

Presentations can be downloaded on our online document sharing platform.

Final outputs and proceedings of the seminar will be available soon.

COGEN Europe, the European federation of cogeneration industry, has made the first industry projection focusing attention on the role of cogeneration out to 2050. According to this report, "with a suitable policy framework, cogeneration is projected to take a foundation role through to 2030 and provide ongoing efficiency and sustainability advantages as the energy mix changes to less carbonated sources through to 2050."

COGEN Europe report "Cogeneration as the foundation of Europe's 2050 low carbon energy policy"

Download the report

In Roanne, an interesting idea came up in order to promote soft mobility and public transports. The local public transport company, STAR (Transports en commun de Grand Roanne agglomération) produced a reality TV show on the local Web television. The TV show followed 5 local celebrities in their daily life faced to the challenge of not using their car during 5 days. Viewers were given the possibility to vote for their favorite candidate among the five, each representing a local NGO. The winner was able to give a prize to the NGO she/he represented. The TV show enventually got great success and 20.000 persons voted.


Teaser "Star sans ma voiture"

Visions of the future are focus of the IMAGINE initiative. The webdocumentary Collapsus, Energy Risk Conspiracy gives its own version. Collapsus is a new experience in cross-media storytelling that combines interactivity with animation, fiction and documentary. The result: a dark vision of the future, quite close to the peak oil drama scenario elaborated by the german army.

http://www.collapsus.com/

Collapsus Introduction from SubmarineChannel on Vimeo.

A German military think-tank has released an internal note on the security risks related to the peak oil reported Der Spiegel. A dark scenario.

The original Spiegel article in german

The english summary of the Spiegel article

5th IMAGINE Seminar
November 22nd – 25th, 2010
Royal Saltwork, Arc-et-Senans (FR)

This year’s IMAGINE seminar focuses on one side on the necessary organization of a European multi-stakeholder governance patterns and on the other side on the implementation of local action.
At European level, which form can take a multi-stakeholder partnership? With which bases and which objectives? The IMAGINE memorandum of understanding lays the basis of the IMAGINE philosophy. How can this work feed a European partnership?
At the local level, how to get started? How can one initiate local processes to develop livable low-energy cities? It is intended to discuss the steps to be implemented, the involvement of local stakeholders in these processes and to get inspired by practices already taking place.





More details and practical info in the draft programme in English and French

Energy Cities organises a workshop on "Low-energy cities with a high quality of life for all: a way towards territorial cohesion" during the Open Days Week in Brussels in order to:

• Build bridges between Energy and Territorial cohesion,
• Gather stakeholders acting directly or indirectly on Energy issues at local and territorial level,
• Prefigure a local energy alliance.

See the programme and save the date: October 6th 2010, 14:30 – 17:00, in Brussels

Important: Registration is compulsory!
As the Open Days’ organisers require it, you have to REGISTER as soon as possible on the Open Days Website. We will then confirm your registration.
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/conferences/od2010/registration.cfm?nmenu=500
The code number of the workshop is: 06C14.

We hope to meet you at this occasion!

The L.A. Department of City Planning is experiencing radical changes in leadership, planning process, and organizational structure. The leaders (past, present, and, future) of planning in L.A. gathered in August to discuss a vision for the future.

The Future of the Los Angeles City Planning Department, excerpt from theplanning report

Read the complete article on Planetizen

Ideas concerning the future of renewable Energies are numerous. EREC delivers two studies on this issue, through a proposal for a UE renewable energy strategy for 2050 (A 100% Renewable Energy Vision for the European Union) and a study co-realised with Greenpeace (Energy Revolution).

RE-thinking 2050

Energy (R)evolution

The next IMAGINE event to be organised will be the start of the Figueres IMAGINE local process.

Through the IMAGINE initiative, the city of Figueres decided to gather local stakeholders with the help of DeMontfort University and Energy Cities in order to engage in a reflection on the energy future of the Figueres Region.

The launch event will take place in the Catalonian Dali City on June 10th and 11th.

www.figueres.cat/

in English:

and in French:



Enjoy your reading and if you want to share your own documents in our Imagine group, do not hesitate to join!

• Minutes
• Presentation by Sabine Froning (EUroheat and power)
• Presentation by Jean-Luc Daubaire (City of Rennes)
• Presentation by Richard Elelman (City of Figueres)
• Presentation by Gérard Magnin (Energie-Cités)

• Minutes
• Presentation by Sabine Froning (Euroheat and power)
• Presentation by Gerard Magnin (Energie-Cités)

First IMAGINE thematic meeting taking place in Brussels tomorrow!

District heating represents an efficient energy solutions for satisfying urban heat. Though, is this solution suitable everywhere? Which primary energy sources does it involve? Does it make room for renewables? And is district heating relevant in low energy districts, when heating needs are low? Under which conditions is district heating acceptable for social housing?



This issues will be cross-analysed by experts and discussed with the participants.

Main speakers are:

• Sabine Froning (Euroheat and Power) [confirmed]
• Josche Muth (EREC) [confirmed]
• Thomas Bouquet (Cogen Europe) [confirmed]
• Claire Roumet (Cecodhas) [confirmed]

Also, one session will address the outputs of the IMAGINE seminar (Memorandum of understanding, Action plan...) held in last November in Arc-et-Senans (FR).

Venue:
February 2nd, 2010
09:00 – 12:00
House of Cities - Square de Meeûs 1 (Room Luxembourg) | B-1000 Brussels

Contact: Stéphane Dupas

http://www.flickr.com/photos/energie-cites/sets/72157623150796904/