Int’l community apprised of city climate action plan
The international climate community was apprised of the forthcoming Kolkata Climate Action Plan on the sidelines of the recently-concluded UN climate conference, COP-29, at Baku, Azerbaijan.
In what comes as a major relief to the citizens of Kolkata, the city’s name has not appeared in the list of 20 most polluted cities in India this time. The list is issued by the ministry of environment, forest and climate change.
According to Kolkata Municipal Corporation mayor Firhad Hakim, Kolkata, which was identified as one of the top 10 most polluted cities by the National Clean Air Program (NCAP), has seen a reduction of 40 per cent in terms of air pollution in the report. “Earlier, Kolkata was among the most polluted cities in India. We were finding it difficult to dig out a solution to the problem and were trying to put efforts that the city’s name does not appear in the list. Kolkata was in the top 20, among the list of 131 polluted cities. Now the news has come with much relief,” said Mr Hakim.
As reiterated by the mayor, the KMC was suggested a list of recommended steps to curb pollution in the city. The civic body has been able to implement 75 per cent of the recommendations, the result of which was evident in the 40 per cent improvement of air quality of the city. The mayor attributed the success to the fact that the civic body was able to achieve such a percentage whereas other civic bodies had just reached a 25 per cent. “We started the work to curb pollution in the financial year 2021-2022 and have been able to reduce the pollution by 40 per cent,” said Mr Hakim. The mayor, however, asserted that more needs to be done and the air quality needs to be kept good for the sustenance of the next generation.
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