More than 220 City and associated representatives from 18 states attended a series of 10 webinar trainings that were jointly delivered from October 2020 to February 2021 by ICLEI South Asia, in partnership with the European Union International Urban Cooperation (IUC) project and the World Resources Institute India, within the framework of the Global Covenant of Mayors.
The objective of the webinars was to build the capacity of urban local bodies to develop their own greenhouse gas emissions inventory and climate action plans to manage the impacts of climate change. As a result of the webinars, cities are now well versed with the process of preparing climate action plans, comply with national and international guidelines on climate action and reporting and demonstrate leadership. A concluding workshop with the active participation of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre was delivered on the 25th of February, 2021, focusing on pragmatic mitigation, adaptation and energy access measures that can be adopted by cities in India.
Mr Edwin Koekkoek, Counsellor Energy & Climate Action, EU Delegation to India, said, “The IUC is one of the key instruments to implement the EU’s contribution to major international agreements on urban development and climate change. IUC joined forces with WRI India and ICLEI South Asia, two leading institutions on climate change in India, to deliver effective and much-needed training on the latest climate change developments for cities. We are content to see active participation and strong interest in the development of effective mitigation and adaptation policies and look forward to new initiatives with cities.”
Mr Emani Kumar, Deputy Secretary-General, ICLEI, and Executive Director, ICLEI South Asia, said, “Continuing to build capacities to enable local climate action, ICLEI South Asia, along with partners, is encouraged by the response from city and state government officials to engage, learn and mainstream climate action planning based on global standards. The depth of expertise and learning shared by the participating cities and states is an indication of the commitment and potential for accelerating local climate action.”
This initiative was supported by the International Urban Cooperation programme, funded by the European Union. The IUC programme supports the achievement of bilateral policy objectives, as well as major international agreements on urban development and climate change.