Emani Kumar
Deputy Secretary General, ICLEI and Executive Director, ICLEI South Asia |
Dear Friends,
Rajkot, an ICLEI South Asia member, has become the first city in the South Asia region to be declared compliant with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) requirements. GCoM is a global alliance for city climate leadership, built upon the commitment of over 10,500 cities from 140 countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions. We congratulate the city of Rajkot for adding another feather to its cap and for cementing its position as a climate pioneer.
Other cities in the region too are taking significant steps in their march towards promoting sustainable lifestyles and achieving climate resilience. Kochi recently took a significant decision to set up a committee to oversee and integrate the urban freight sector in the city for improved urban mobility and development, a key focus of our EcoLogistics project. In Udaipur, senior city government officials attended a workshop, organised by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, which emphasised the role of behavioural change in urban planning and implementation, as part of the second phase of the Urban95 Programme.
We had also partnered with the European Union International Urban Cooperation project and World Resources Institute, India to organise a series of training webinars over five months for more than 220 city representatives on inclusive climate action planning. The series successfully concluded in February.
A couple of important resource materials that we released recently include a case study of the outstanding Illustrated Natural Asset Maps that have been developed for three cities under the INTERACT-Bio project, and a comprehensive policy brief on the significance of peri-urban areas in India. This edition has reports on all these developments, in addition to a blog on integrating circularity into plastic waste management.
Happy reading! |
