Pune civic body set up Climate Action Cell to achieve carbon neutrality

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has formed a Climate Action Cell, comprised of experts in the field and representatives of concerned organisations, to reduce carbon emissions in the city. The Climate Action Cell met for the first time on Thursday to decide the city's strategy to achieve carbon neutrality.

Under the dedicated cell, the municipal body has organised an executive committee and a working group. It stated the necessity for a climate action plan, which requires a greenhouse gas emission inventory and the measurement of carbon emissions.

The dedicated cell will prepare short-term and long-term targets for achieving carbon neutrality in Pune, in addition to organising public awareness plans and programmes, national and international-level climate change programmes, partnership agreements with various organisations to work collaboratively on the issue, and raising funds for programme implementation.

Kunal Khemnar, the additional municipal commissioner, urged all members of the cell to gather as much information on climate change as possible from diverse sources and to submit programmes to the PMC as part of its climate action plan. "We need to work on reducing carbon emissions while also raising awareness in educational institutions and among citizens," he said.

Mangesh Dighe, the PMC's environment officer, stated that it will assist the civic body in regularly submitting reports to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, the Carbon Disclosure Project, the International Council for Local Environment Initiatives, and the C40 cities' group.

Vaishali Patkar, an activist who represents the CCP Environment Foundation and is a member of the PMC's Climate Action Cell, made a presentation on the civic body's initiative.