Kolkata is the first city in South Asia to be included in the list of prestigious C-40 group of megacities, which is committed to creating environment-friendly cities.
An agreement in this regard was signed between state urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim and Kevin Austin, deputy executive director of C-40 Cities Climate Leadership Group at Nabanna on Friday.
Hakim said that apart from Kolkata three other Indian cities namely Jaipur, Delhi and Mumbai were eager to join the C40 group. Finally, Kolkata was selected.
The group will offer help to the state government on a host of areas for addressing climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The major areas are solid waste management and air pollution. The group will come up with a blueprint including suggestions and ways by which they can be implemented so as to help Kolkata to become an environment-friendly city. The blueprint will be given to both KMDA and KMC for implementation.
C-40 Group helps in achieving the common goal of all the cities in saving the climate. The group offers cities a forum where they can share knowledge to take meaningful, measurable and sustainable action on climate change, said Hakim.
Bengal’s joining the group was conceived by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her London visit.
Image via englishsamachar.com