India News | Cities Risk Irreversible Damage Due to Environmental Degradation: Officials
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Environmental degradation can cause irreversible damage to cities if action is not taken now, officials warned on Thursday.
Indore (MP), May 18 (PTI) Environmental degradation can cause irreversible damage to cities if action is not taken now, officials warned on Thursday.
They said environmental sustainability and climate change can no longer be ignored in urban development and stressed the need to incorporate these concerns into all upcoming projects and policies.
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"Be it Panaji, Thane, Surat, our cities could suffer permanent damage if their green areas are not protected now. We need to take immediate measures to improve the state of the environment in our cities," Kunal Kumar, Mission Director of the Smart Cities Mission under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), said at an Urban 20 (U20) event here.
The U20 is a parallel event to the G20 summit, which gathers leaders from the world's largest economies. While the G20 focuses on global economic issues, the U20 focuses specifically on urban issues and their impact on sustainable development, climate change, and social inclusion.
Under India's G20 presidency, the U20 Mayors' Summit will take place in Ahemdabad, Gujarat, in July.
Neeraj Mandloi, Principal Secretary of the Urban Development and Housing Department in Madhya Pradesh, said: "We cannot ignore the environmental sustainability factor anymore and it should not be limited to just tree plantation. It should reflect in our planning and actions."
"We need to keep environment and climate change in mind whenever we take up a new project or frame a new policy," he said.
MoHUA spokesperson Rajeev Jain said India acknowledges the need for climate-resilient and sustainable development considering rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, increased frequency of extreme weather events like cyclones and floods, and sea-level rise globally.
Kumar said 2 billion people are estimated to be added to cities worldwide in the next 25 years, with 90 per cent of the growth predicted in Asia and Africa.
India and Nigeria alone are expected to account for half of this increase. Currently, around 500 million people reside in Indian cities, a number set to double in the next 25 years.
To match the pace of population growth, Kumar stressed the need for innovative approaches and aggressive economic growth.
The U20 Mayors' Summit in Ahmedabad will focus on encouraging environmentally responsive behaviour, ensuring water security, leveraging local potential and identity, reinventing urban governance and planning frameworks and catalysing digital urban futures.
The Global Climate Risk Index 2021 had ranked India seventh in the list of most affected countries in terms of exposure and vulnerability to climate risk events.
Nine Indian states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Punjab are among the world's top 50 regions at risk of damage to the built environment due to climate change, according to the 'Gross Domestic Climate Risk' report published in February.
The discussions during the U20 event highlighted the importance of data-driven decision-making, promoting digital innovations in service delivery, and inclusive planning involving local communities. Public-private collaboration for sustainable development, citizen-led innovation in design, and access to global funding were emphasized. The event stressed the significance of building strong local communities, supporting artisans and entrepreneurs, and utilizing data-based technologies for global best practice sharing.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)