Abstract
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has set itself the ambitious objective of reducing by 55% greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, despite an estimated strong population growth. This goal is in line with the European “Green Deal” strategy, which aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In order to ensure that this objective is reachable, the Luxembourg Ministry of Energy and Spatial Planning has launched an interdisciplinary competition to gather strategic planning proposals aimed at producing ecological transition scenarios for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and its border territories by 2050. The cross-border dimension of this strategy comes from the fact that the country is part of a functional space that goes well beyond its borders. With more than 200,000 workers crossing the border every day to work in Luxembourg, this small country is one of those which welcome the most cross-border workers in the world. These scenarios are intended to help achieve the objective, but also to better understand what the consequences will be in terms of lifestyle adaptations. The idea behind this competition is that it is only by profoundly changing the spatial organisation of the Grand Duchy as well as many aspects of its inhabitants’ lifestyles that Luxembourg will be able to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Teleworking, reduced soil sealing, large-scale recycling and upcycling, electromobility and renaturation of urban brownfields are just a few examples of the different levers that will have to be activated and that have been put forward by the different competing teams to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The teams were also asked to quantify the contributions of their proposals to the decarbonisation objective, in order to monitor the progress to be made between now and 2030/2050. In this presentation, the first part will be dedicated to a territorial diagnosis of the cross-border functional area of Luxembourg and of the challenges that are raised. In a second part, we will briefly present the specifications of the international competition. Finally, we will see what the main ideas retained by the winning teams are, and in what proportions they can contribute to the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Beyond the Luxembourg example, the lessons learned will be of interest to all planners who deal with issues of resilience and adaptability of territories.
