Monthly Archives: August 2019

Climate Smart Cities

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India is implementing a project named ‘Climate Smart Cities’ in Kochi city which is commissioned by Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU). The project is implemented by GIZ. The project is aimed to develop climate-friendly solutions for urban infrastructure projects and area-based development as well as the measuring and monitoring of the GHG emissions.

The main focus of the project is to mitigation and adaptation to climate change as well as disaster resilience by 2020, promote selected climate-relevant solutions for urban infrastructure and increase the capacity of cities and regional institutes contributing to reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, develop a concept for an MRV system to document and evaluate the long term envisaged mitigation impact of the measures supported in the three partner cities, disseminate German and international experiences for including climate aspects into Smart City projects through a networking platform and experience exchanges in between Indian smart cities and training institutes.

c-hed is coordinating the project for the city and the programme is ongoing.

Capacity building program – Ecologistics

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A two day capacity building workshop on sustainable urban freight management in Kochi in association with ICLEI South Asia and Kochi Metro Rail Limited, on 7th and 8th June 2019. The focus of the capacity-building workshop was to prioritize strategies that promote goods transportation with minimal impacts on air quality, noise, health and fatalities and injuries, besides reducing traffic congestion and GHG emissions.

More than 175 stakeholders such as government officials and representatives of central and state government agencies, private stakeholders, freight lorry associations and trade, industry and research organizations, attended the workshop. In the workshop, National and international freight experts presented sector-specific learning and strategies, as well as good practices from developed and developing countries. Besides technical presentations, there was brainstorming on sustainable urban freight management strategies in Kochi.

A tree for a child

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The Kochi Municipal Corporation is implementing a programme named ‘A tree for a child’, as part of its environment conservation initiatives for the city. The initiative aims at increasing the number of trees per person in the city. As per the programme, the parents of a new born in the city can plant and nurture a tree in the name of the newborn. And the tree will be handed over to his/her name, when the infant is grownup.

According to mayor Soumini Jain, this unique project will be a role model for the entire country. The mayor inaugurated the project by planting a tree in the name of 3-months old Niranjan Menon of Vipanchika house at MG Road on June 4, ahead of World Environment Day on June 5, 2019.

Visit of official delegation from Vilnius , Lithuania as part of IUC programme

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As part of the International Urban Cooperation Program funded by the European Union, a five member delegation from Vilnius, Lithuania led by the head of the urban development department, Mr. Mindaugas Pakalnis, visited Kochi to meet various stakeholders within Kochi Municipal Corporation, Kochi Smart City and other parastatal agencies involved in various urban development related activities in the city. The basic objective of the visit and meeting with diverse set of stakeholders was to understand, analyse and learn the baseline scenarios related to solid waste management, policies on climate change and an assessment of the current
institutional framework in the city. After a series of discussions it was finalised that the two cities would cooperate on three major areas: Solid waste management, transport and tourism.

Earlier, a team from Kochi led by the Hon’ble Deputy Mayor, had visited Vilnius. The exchange was as part of the City to city cooperation under the IUC Programme.

c-hed is coordinating the project for the city and the programme is ongoing.