Sydney to host quest for tomorrow’s sustainable cities

Sydney will take centre stage in the quest to combat climate change and develop a sustainable future when it hosts 1000 international experts for the first World Congress of the Renewable City in 2009.

The four-day congress will confront the greatest challenges facing cities worldwide and present the latest innovations from leading specialists in green energy and sustainable urban development.

The event is the brainchild of the respected Asia-Pacific chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy, Conjoint Professor Peter Droege of the University of Newcastle, and has been conceived with the help of the Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau.  

It will be preceded on March 5, 2008, by a preparatory event called Renewable City 2008, the Australian Summit on Sustainable Urban Development, Energy and Water.  The Australian summit will bring together about 100 invited industry and government leaders from around the country.

Professor Droege said both events would centre on the urban environment, the home of 85 per cent of Australians and more than half the world’s population.

“We’ll focus squarely on urban solutions to the mounting fossil energy security risks we face and the associated threats of global warming,” Professor Droege said.  “The built environment is the very setting in which our best aspirations and most hopeful innovations for overcoming climate change and other threats can be made tangible.”

The World Congress of the Renewable City is aimed at professionals, researchers, industry leaders and policy makers.  It will address five key areas – design and development; policy, law and institutions; finance; transport and mobility; and energy supply and use.

SCVB Managing Director Jon Hutchison said the event supported a wider strategy to place Sydney at the forefront of innovation and achievement in world scientific communities.

“The World Congress of the Renewable City will tackle some of the greatest issues facing the international community and is a great example of how Sydney can connect our own pioneering researchers with other world leaders to assist important breakthroughs,” Mr Hutchison said. 

The World Congress of the Renewable City, March 8-11, 2009, is endorsed by the World Council for Renewable Energy, an international organisation promoting the rapid and world-wide adoption of sun, wind, water and bio-energy.  It is supported by the SCVB, the NSW Department of State and Regional Development and the International Union of Architects through its Architecture and Renewable Energy working party.  ICMS Australasia has been appointed event organiser.

Professor Droege is Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle’s School of Architecture and Built Environment, and appointed Visiting Professor at Beijing University. He is an expert on the role of renewable energy within the fields of urban design, development and urban infrastructure, and is the author of several publications including The Renewable City, a Comprehensive Guide to an Urban Revolution (renewablecity.org).  He developed a renewable energy advisory service, Solar City®, and is a laureate of the 2007 European Solar Prize.

A Report by The Mole