Three out of four Europeans live in a city. Urban sprawl is prompting new construction and especially growth in motorised transport. Unfortunately the building and transport sectors are the heaviest consumers of energy and the ones that emit the most greenhouse gas. If we want to achieve European and national energy objectives, it is urgent that we rethink our town planning models. With other stakeholders, ADEME is particularly well-placed to encourage regional development and the emergence of new approaches towards the evolution of a post-carbon society. For this reason, ADEME has created a new Sustainable Cities and Territories Division. This umbrella structure includes four pre-existing units–transport and mobility, buildings, air quality evaluation, urban wasteland and polluted sites–plus a new fifth unit entrusted with an integrative task and called the Urban Organisations Department. With this new division, ADEME aims to provide local decision makers with a “sustainable city toolbox”. Building on the second generation of the Environmental Approach to Town Planning, the system will include diagnostic, performance evaluation and modelling instruments, coupled with sharing experience and a catalogue of best practices. These are all ADEME areas of expertise with the potential for international development.