43 cities of Maharashtra to join global Race to Zero campaign

MUMBAI: Aaditya Thackeray, Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Government of Maharashtra, announced on Thursday, September 23, that 43 cities of Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and urban clusters from the state will join the campaign of global Race to Zero. This will help them in joining the race to become carbon neutral by 2040s or sooner.

The state environment department will take an inventory exercise for greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions for all the cities and clusters. In this exercise, the cities will explain what actions need to be taken towards achieving both interim and long-term pledges.

Chandni Singh, Senior Research Consultant, Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore, said that this campaign has a holistic approach and shows that mitigation and adaptation are not enough and everything has to be together. She added that a study done by IIHS showed that 50-60% of the cities with over a million population have some sort of climate resilience plans. However, the problem lies in implementation, she added.