Meeting of the Committee on Sustainable Development: climate change, coastal towns and intra-regional transport

Strasbourg, 30.11.2009 - At its meeting in Strasbourg on 1 December, the Congress Committee on Sustainable Development will continue its work on climate change by considering in particular its effects on coastal towns, and will adopt a report on intra-regional transport as a challenge for sustainable development and territorial cohesion.

To prepare the Congress’ participation in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, a debate will be held on recognising local and regional authorities’ role in combating climate change. Henning Jensen, Vice-Chair of the Commission for Sustainable Development of the EU Committee of the Regions, Gino Van Begin, Regional Director for Europe of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, and Claude Haegi, President of the European Foundation for the Sustainable Development of the Regions (FEDRE), will take part.

The Committee will hold an exchange of views on the way in which coastal towns are adapting to the effects of climate change, in preparation for the report by Iñigo de la Serna, Mayor of Santander (L, EPP/CD, Spain), Iñigo Losada, Director of the Environmental Hydraulics Institute, Cantabria University (Spain) and Olaf MÜLLER, Head of the Water and Protection against Highwater Division of the Agency of Roads, Bridges and Water, Hamburg (Germany).

Finally, the Committee will also hold an exchange of views on local and regional authorities’ role in implementing human rights, in particular the right to sustainable development. It will also commence discussions on the reports on the sustainable development of mountain regions and the experience of the Carpathian Mountains, and on landscape as a new dimension of public territorial action.