"ON THE WAY TOWARDS A LOW-CARBON SOCIETY - Increasing professionalism in land use and landscape management within climate changeThe European Commission is looking for cost-efficient ways to make the European economy more climate-friendly and less energy-consuming. By 2050, the European Union could cut most of its greenhouse gas emissions. In this framework, the idea of a low-carbon society has been launched as an aim of future societies. According future scenarios and national strategies, a large number of environmental specialists are and will be needed for preventing climate change and achieving the aims of a low-carbon society.Nowadays, the problem is that the higher education sector does not have a direct relationship to working life which would be the best party concerned to mentor and direct educational structures in the field of environmental issues. Close cooperation between working life and education as well as working life based issues as threads of study structures would be a way to train environmental specialists able to respond to challenges of land use and landscape issues and, broadly, to challenges of a low-carbon society. The overall aim of the project is to create and empower higher education structures, which will achieve professionalism in the management of land use and landscape issues targeting the idea of a low-carbon society and, hence, preventing climate change.TowardsLCS is a consortium of nine partners from Finland, Poland and Spain including three academic institutions and six local, regional or national organizations (working life partners):FINLAND1. University of Eastern Finland2. Metsähallitus, the Parks & Wildlife Finland (national public body)3. Regional Council of North Karelia (regional public body)POLAND4. Adam Mickiewicz University5. Miejska Pracownia Urbanistyczna (Municipal Planning Office) (local public body)6. Zakład Zagospodarowania Odpadów (Waste Management Company) (enterprise)SPAIN7. University of Girona8. Landscape Observatory (consortium, advisory body)9. Girona Provincial Council (local public body)The project has highlighted environmental questions, which are real and present in land use and landscape planning and management at the local, regional and national levels. The project has empowered the local, regional and international cooperation between the university and working life partners and it has opened opportunities for further cooperation on the fields of higher education, regional development and research.The most important achievement of the project is the ""Towards Low-Carbon Societies Learning Platform and Study Modules"", see: http://towardslowcarbon.eu/. The platform is an open-access study area for the higher education and anybody who is interested about the idea of low-carbon society. It 1) offers information about low-carbon society 2) helps to design a low-carbon theme course in higher education and 3) in the frames of flipped learning, includes study materials before intensive course activities."