Sustainable Cities India Program

• 25 Feb 2022

For Prelims: Sustainable Cities India program, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), World Economic Forum, Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).

For Mains: Urbanization, Conservation, Government Policies and Interventions.

Why in News?

Recently, the World Economic Forum and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) signed a MoU to collaborate on a jointly designed ‘Sustainable Cities India program’.

• The ‘Sustainable Cities India' intends to enable cities to decarbonise in a systematic and sustainable way that will reduce emissions and deliver resilient and equitable urban ecosystems.
• This initiative is in synergy with India’s commitment to turn net zero by 2070 as a climate mitigation response at COP26.

What are the Key Points of ‘Sustainable Cities India Program’?

• The program aims to create an enabling environment for cities to generate decarbonization solutions across the energy, transport, and the built environment sectors.
• The Forum and NIUA will adapt the Forum’s City Sprint process and Toolbox of Solutions for decarbonization in the context of five to seven Indian cities across two years.
  • City Sprint Process: The City Sprint process is a series of multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder workshops involving business, government, and civil society leaders to enable decarbonization, especially through clean electrification and circularity.
  • Toolbox of Solutions: It provides a digital platform containing over 200 examples of clean electrification, efficiency and smart infrastructure best practices and case studies across buildings, energy systems and mobility from over 110 cities around the world.

What is the Need for Decarbonisation?

• As per the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022, densely populated countries that are highly dependent on agriculture, such as India, are especially vulnerable to climate insecurity.
  • Decarbonization in cities is a real opportunity to keep global warming well below 2°C and cities in India can make an enormous contribution in reaching this goal.
• The World Economic Forum’s Net Zero Carbon Cities’ mission is to create an enabling environment for clean electrification and circularity, resulting in urban decarbonization and resilience.
  • The program aims to do this by fostering public-private collaboration to bridge the gap across the energy, built environment and transport sectors.

What is NIUA?

• Established in 1976, the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) is India’s leading national think tank on urban planning and development.
• As a hub for the generation and dissemination of cutting-edge research in the urban sector, NIUA seeks to provide innovative solutions to address the challenges of a fast urbanizing India, and pave the way for more inclusive and sustainable cities of the future.

What Initiatives are Taken by Government of India’s for Urban Development?

• Smart Cities Mission.
• Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).
• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U).
• Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs).
• Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0.
• TULIP-The Urban Learning Internship Program.

Source: PIB