Luxembourg in Transition is a process in which 10 international multidisciplinary teams of architects, urban planners, landscape designers and other industry professionals are, between mid-2020 and the end of 2021, envisioning scenarios and proposals for how the territory of Luxembourg and its border regions can achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The Department of Spatial Planning of the Ministry of Energy and Spatial Planning has decided to accompany this process with a Citizens’ Committee, the Biergerkommitee Lëtzebuerg 2050.
Missions
The Biergerkommitee Lëtzebuerg 2050 will:
- discuss and evaluate the results of the different phases of Luxembourg in Transition;
- be available to provide feedback to the various expert teams;
- develop an understanding of how Luxembourg should position itself to achieve climate neutrality by 2050;
- at the end of the process, be able to make recommendations to political decision-makers, contributing to the development of the Programme directeur d’aménagement du territoire (PDAT).
Programme
The members of the Citizens’ Committee will have the opportunity to, throughout 2021, attend some twenty conferences, discussions, exchanges, and information sessions on various aspects of spatial planning, both digitally and in person. (Inter)national experts will discuss a wide range of themes and issues with them such as mobility, housing, water management, and climate change so that they can assess the complexity of the challenges that lie ahead.
The programme and working methods are defined in cooperation with the members of the Citizens’ Committee. The committee may, for example, invite additional experts on its own initiative.
Selection of participants
The opinion research institute TNS Ilres has been commissioned to choose the 30 participants and the 10 substitute candidates for the committee. From an existing database of 18,000 names, a random selection of people was invited by e-mail to apply, alongside a public call launched on the 4th of December 2020, both on social networks and in public media.
Based on the applications received, TNS Ilres has assembled a group of people who best reflect the diversity of the Luxembourgish population by taking age, gender, level of education, professional background, and country of origin into account.
5 of the 30 participants are cross-border commuters since they are also affected by current spatial planning decisions.
Organisation
The Biergerkommitee Lëtzebuerg 2050 is coordinated and moderated by a secretariat, a task the Department of Spatial Planning has assigned to Stoldt Associés, Luxembourg.
Results
On the 18th of January 2022 the Citizens’ Committee presented the results of their deliberations to Claude Turmes, Minister for Energy and Regional Planning, in the presence of Carole Dieschbourg, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, Lex Delles, Minister for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Franz Fayot, Minister for the Economy, and Henri Kox, Minister for Housing.
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