Preparations are continuing for the fourth in this popular series of conferences on clean coal technologies. CCT2009, will be held at the Maritim Hotel and International Congress Center, Dresden, Germany on 18-21 May 2009, in conjunction with the Third International Freiberg Conference on IGCC and XtL Technologies. The conference is being organised by IEA CCC, Forschungszentrum Jülich and the University of Freiberg. The first three conferences in this series were held in Sardinia, Italy. The most recent, in May last year attracted more than 200 delegates from more than 32 countries confirming this as one of the world’s foremost events for those interested in clean coal technologies. IEA CCC will hold an Executive Committee meeting in Dresden ahead of the conference on 16-17 May.

A thank you to all delegates who have submitted abstracts for papers to be presented at CCT2009. There has been an excellent response. Prospective authors will be notified by 15 January 2009 as to whether their paper has been accepted. Full papers are required by 1 March 2009. Further details of this major event are available from the conference website http://www.cct2009.org/.