Aurangabad is among five cities from Maharashtra who will join the ‘Race to Zero’ campaign aimed at achieving net zero carbon emission. The other cities include Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Nashik, civic authorities said, referring to latest announcement by state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray.
The global campaign by cities which are committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is known as ‘Race to Zero.’ The objective of this campaign is to build momentum towards decarbonized economy ahead of COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow scheduled to be held later this year.
Responding to this development, Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator Astik Kumar Pandey said that the city will have to take environmental-friendly decisions as a part of the campaign.
“We have already started taking steps towards the net zero target and strengthening our solid waste management, river rejuvenation and developing cycling infrastructure in the city as part of the same. But, there is a long way to go and we will need partnership of all stakeholders,” he said.
As part of the Paris agreement signed in December 2015, almost 200 countries pledged to control greenhouse gas emissions so that the global rise in temperature can be limited to two degrees celsius and to keep warming at or below 1.5 degrees celsius.
“Towards achieving this goal, many cities across the world have committed to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions to net zero. It means converting public and private vehicles to run on electricity as much as possible. Cities also would encourage industries to switch to wind power, hydro power, solar power, and geothermal for their operations to reduce carbon emissions,” Pandey said.
To compensate for unavoidable carbon emissions, the cities must plant trees to absorb the carbon dioxide so that overall emissions balances out to be zero. Such an effort to increase the green cover is already underway in Aurangabad, civic administration has said.
