The 13 Indian cities that have been finalised to compete for the Global Earth Hour City Challenge 2015 are Ahmedabad, Cochin, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Gandhinagar, Gwalior, Kota, Nashik, Panaji, Pune, Rajkot, Shimla and Thane. All the cities have successfully reported all relevant data on energy consumption, mitigation and adaptation actions, action plans, etc, on carbonn Climate Registry (cCR).  

7 out of these 13 cities are from the previous batch, who have been persistently taking actions to reduce their carbon emissions and the remaining 6 are new cities, efficiently progressing towards the path of low emission development. Stakeholder meetings have been organised in few cities and have witnessed a high level of participation and enthusiasm from the concerned departments and the city as a whole. The final decision as to who the winner of the Earth Hour City Challenge (EHCC) 2015 would be will be decided by an international jury of experts in consultation with World Wide Fund (WWF) on the basis of the cities’ reported actions and their own ambitious targets and strategic actions taken to achieve the same.

The evaluation process has now begun. One city from each country with the best adaptation and mitigation actions and targets would win the title of the National Earth Hour Capital. Out of these, one best city would win the title of the Global Earth Hour Capital. All the 13 Indian cities have been extremely active in their participation and have extended all the necessary help and support, which made the implementation of the entire process much easier and effective. 

Click here for further information on EHCC’s South Asian activities.