The June 2008 meeting is seen as a key event when CITRIS and CCC jointly (with the support of the Danish government and Copenhagen University) convene a global research summit in Copenhagen. The outcome of this summit will be the defining framework of a Roadmap to Alleviate Climate Change, which in itself would contribute greatly towards a constructive approach to the issues of the UN Summit.

As the Danish Minister of Climate and Energy, Ms. Connie Hedegaard, is preparing to host the 2009 UN Summit on Climate Change (the last chance for world leaders to agree on a new protocol to replace Kyoto before the 2012 deadline). In preparation, she has asked the Copenhagen Climate Council to assist her in getting optimal input from key stakeholders like scientists, global business leaders, investors.

"CITRIS has an opportunity here to contribute to this vitally important issue in a profound way,” notes Gary Baldwin, CITRIS’s Executive Director. ”We are honored to be asked by the Copenhagen Climate Council to work with them in bringing international academic, industrial, and public policy attention to the research and innovations required to reach global goals in curtailing GHG emissions and thus stemming the trends toward catastrophic planetary warming.”
”Providing clean, affordable, secure energy for all the world's people is one of the key goals for humanity in the 21st century, and C-GRACE meeting will help us understand some of the key technical challenges and opportunities to achieving it,” added Alex Farrell, UC Berkeley Professor in the Energy and Resources Group and Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center.