€750m package for 'green cities'

A €750 million package will be handed to the "cities of tomorrow" as part of an "EcoCité" scheme launched in October 2008, by former environment minister, Jean-Louis Borloo.

Thirteen cities - Bordeaux, Rennes, Strasbourg/ Kehl, Montpellier, Nantes, Metz, Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Nice, Marseille, La Réunion, Pays Haut Val d'Alzette and Plaine Commune - have committed to increasing their population by 50,000 people over the next 25 years by creating ecological quarters as part of a sustainable development plan.

Housing minister secretary Benoist Apparu said those "laboratories for the French sustainable city" would fight climate change through zero-energy quarters and the development of combined-transport hubs, electrical car and new clean-up devices.