The World Economic Forum and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) marked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to team up on a mutually planned ‘Sustainable Cities India program’ with the aim to establish an empowering environment for urban areas to produce decarbonization solutions covering the energy, transport, and the constructed environmental areas.
This drive is especially important as it comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed India’s obligation to reach net zero emissions by 2070 as a climate change resolution at COP26. The ‘Sustainable Cities India program’ aims to empower urban areas to decarbonize in a deliberate and economical manner that will decrease emissions and will provide strong and impartial metropolitan ecosystems.
The Forum and National Institute of Urban Affairs will adjust the Forum’s City Sprint Process and Toolbox of Solutions for decarbonization with regards to five to seven Indian urban areas across the span of two years.
The City Sprint process is a sequence of multi-sectoral, multi-partner workshops that includes businesses, governments, and civil society leaders to empower decarbonization, particularly through clean electrification solutions and circularity.
The result of the workshops will be a selective list of pertinent strategies and plans of action, which will reduce emissions along with augmenting the System Value, like improving the air quality or job creation. City Sprints will assist with kicking off or potentially speed up net zero emissions planning and activity.
The City Sprint process utilizes the Toolbox of Solutions – a digital platform consisting of more than 200 instances of clean electrification, proficiency and smart infrastructure best actions and case studies across structures, energy systems and mobility from more than 110 cities all over the globe.
The City Sprint process will likewise empower urban areas to run preliminary solutions, and in light of the discoveries thereof, India will be capable to contribute around 10 to 40 best practice case studies which will be coordinated into the Toolbox of Solutions and displayed across the globe.
On the occasion of signing the Memorandum of Understanding, Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary and Mission Director (Smart Cities Mission), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, said that India is resolved to become Net Zero by 2070, in line with its foresight for a ‘future ready’ India set by the Honorable Prime Minister during the COP26 conclave in Glasgow.
To make this vision possible and achievable to speed up the clean energy transformation, discussion and all the more significant, action among all the actors of the quadruple helix is crucial. This association between the National Institute of Urban Affairs and the World Economic Forum is a significant step in the direction. This joint effort will help urban settlements in India and cities around the world to gain from each other and propel action with regard to sustainable developments and climate versatility.
Hitesh Vaidya, the Director of the National Institute of Urban Affairs, said that India is urbanizing at a rapid pace. The scale and speed is unparalleled. With this, cross-sector and inter-organizational cooperation is pivotal to encourage the exchange of information and knowledge and mark out best practices that can be put in place effectively in the Indian setting.
He said that he can see prominent worth in NIUA’s coordinated effort with WEF as it won’t just build the capabilities of metropolitan professionals in India through the City Sprint workshops, but additionally will also give them entry to a worldwide Toolbox of Solutions and will help them associate with other possible partners in our foresight to make Indian cities future-ready.
Kristen Panerali, the Head of Energy, Materials, Infrastructure Program – Net Zero Carbon Cities, World Economic Forum, remarked that the new models of public and private joint effort are expected to gain ground towards net zero objectives.
The City Sprint workshops are intended to empower government and business leaders to cooperate to recognize and carry out solutions across the energy, portability and the built environment. With the current cooperation in place, the Toolbox of Solutions will move forward to develop and will extend to give thoughts to cities all over the planet.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022, thickly populated nations that are exceptionally reliant upon agribusiness, like India, are particularly helpless against unstable climate. Decarbonization in the urban centers is a genuine chance to keep the global warming well underneath 2°C and urban centers in India can make a huge contribution to attain this objective.
Regarding Net Zero Carbon Cities
The World Economic Forum’s Net Zero Carbon Cities’ main goal is to establish an empowering environment for clean electrification and circularity, bringing about decarbonization and resilience in the urban centers. The program plans to do this by encouraging public-private partnerships to overcome any issues across the energy, built environment and transport areas.
Regarding NIUA
Set up in 1976, the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) is India’s driving public research organization on metropolitan preparation and advancement. As a focal point for the generation and propagation of the state of the art research in the metropolitan areas, the NIUA tries to give inventive solutions to convey the difficulties of a quick urbanizing India, and create the path for more comprehensive and sustainable cities of the future.
