The economy-wide green house gas (GHG) emission of Nagpur has increased ten-fold from 2005 to 2019 and it will further increase 348 percent from 2015 to 2030 if no proper action is taken, revealed a preliminary GHG inventory and climate action plan roadmap presented by Vasudha Foundation recently. The emission profile also reveals that, up to 2019, energy sector emission (mainly from thermal power plants) were 54.2 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e), which are expected to climb to 126.2 Mt CO2e if no action is taken. According to the GHG inventory, the key issues for the city are emission from six thermal power plants, heat stress, water scarcity, air pollution, fugitive emission from coal mining, transportation, forest cover loss, and waste management. Meanwhile, the GHG inventory revealed that other sectors’ emissions were not as significant as the energy sectors.

 

The NGO presented the report and action plan to the Maharashtra’s Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray during a review meeting held through a video conferencing recently. After launching the climate action plan for Mumbai city in 2021, the State Environment Ministry has begun reviewing strategies to reduce the impact of climate change of Nagpur which is the only energy producer of Maharashtra. After getting the details from the NGO, Thackeray in the review meeting, instructed Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and Nagpur district administration to implement climate action plan of the city with best strategies for a climate-resilient Nagpur. The review meeting was chaired by Aditya Thackeray. District Collector R Vimala, senior officials from the Environment and Climate Change Department, officials of MPCB and environmental think tanks Shakti Foundation and Vasudha Foundation also attended the virtual meeting.

 

“Nagpur contributes to a significant amount of Maharashtra’s energy generation, and hence needs climate-sensitive strategies to ensure that this happens in a responsible manner.” said Thackeray. “Policy intervention through our Majhi Vasundhara programme, electric vehicle adoption, reducing carbon footprint, improving air quality and most importantly citizen participation were identified as actionable strategies,” he said. While asked about the instructions issued by the Minister to MPCB, Sub Regional Officer Anand Katole said, “MPCB and district administration have already prepared an environment action plan for Nagpur district and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has also prepared a city environment plan. We informed the minister about both action plans during the meeting.” Katole said, “Environment minister instructed us to work on all three action plans prepared by MPCB, NMC and Vasudha Foundation and come up with a modern and accurate strategies for Nagpur district.”