The Environment Directorate-General of the European Commission is pleased to announce that it will host a high-level conference in Brussels on Thursday 12th June 2008 on the interrelations between soil and climate change and on the possible role of soil management in climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The conference will be opened by Mr Stavros Dimas, Member of the Commission responsible for the environment, and will see the participation of leading scientists and researchers who will report on the latest scientific findings concerning issues such as the amount of carbon stored in European soils, the evolution of these stocks in the last twenty years, future perspectives in relation to the forecasted increase in global average temperature, the role that agricultural and forestry practices can play in mitigating any negative effects of a raise of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere.

Members of the European Parliament, representatives of the Council of Ministers and other key players will be invited to participate in a roundtable discussion to express their views on the policy options that are available for enhancing the role that soils can play as a repository of carbon and limiting the loss organic carbon from soils.

The conference will inform the debate at European level on the best course of action for supporting the Soil Thematic Strategy and its accompanying legislative proposal adopted by the European Commission in September 2006 as well as the objectives presented in the Green Paper on adaptation to climate change adopted by the European Commission in June 2007.

Draft programme

The participation to the conference is free of charge but will be limited to 250 people on a first-come-first-served basis. Interpretation will be provided in English, French, German, Slovenian, Italian, Spanish and Polish.

The conference will take place in the Albert Borschette Conference Centre of the European Commission, rue Froissart 36, 1040 Brussels (see directions).

To be kept informed of further developments and receive the draft programmes as they will be produced, please send your e-mail address to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

To register and obtain in due course an invitation, please fill in the on-line registration form. Note that, for security reasons, only people with a confirmed invitation will be allowed in the Conference Centre .

For information about accommodation in Brussels , please contact the Brussels Tourist Office at http://www.opt.be/accueil/en/index.html .

Information on public transport in Brussels is available at http://www.stib.be/index.htm?guest_user=guest_en