Ms Tine Heyse is deputy mayor of the city of Ghent, since January 2013. She has been a city council member for the Green party since 2000. Currently Ms Heyse has an executive portfolio combining energy, climate, housing and environmental policies. She is also co-president of Climate Alliance. Climate and energy have been common themes throughout her career, having worked as a campaigner for Greenpeace 10 year. Ms Heyse worked in the cabinet of the Flemish minister of Welfare between 1999 and 2003 after which she worked at the Climate Change unit of the Federal Ministry of Environment. Before taking office as deputy mayor of Ghent she was the climate and energy expert for the Green party in the Belgian federal parliament.