ICLEI South Asia presented the EcoLogistics project to the elected representatives of the Kochi Municipal Corporation at a meeting held at the council hall in Kochi, Kerala, on the 27th of April.

The agenda of the meeting, held under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Mayor Ms. Soumini Jain, was to promote synergy of the projects being implemented by different organizations and agencies in Kochi. The mayor said that such a synergy would help to improve efficiency and prevent duplication of work.

ICLEI South Asia has initiated the EcoLogistics project in three Indian cities, including Kochi. The project is being supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) through its International Climate Initiative (IKI) program.

The chairpersons of the public works committee and the health standing committee, and the council secretary also attended the Kochi meeting.

Speaking at the event, ICLEI South Asia staff said that the project aimed to prioritise strategies to promote transportation of goods with minimal impact on air quality, which would also improve health, as well as reduce noise, fatalities and injuries, traffic congestion and GHG emissions. It was stated that the project would create baselines of GHG emissions generated by the freight sector. These assessments will be the basis for developing Low Carbon Action Plans for Urban Freight (LCAP-UF).

The LCAP-UF will define the GHG emissions reduction targets and corresponding actions. A set of demonstration projects will be implemented to showcase the potential of low carbon urban freight strategies identified in the LCAP-UF. Based on the outcome, national policy recommendations will be made to strengthen appropriate framework conditions for local actions to improve urban freight transport.

The attendees at the Kochi meet welcomed the EcoLogistics project, calling it a timely initiative. The mayor suggested that the possibility of formulating a common working plan for various projects in Kochi (including those being implemented by other multilateral agencies such as GIZ and AFD) should be explored, and the development of a website that would help to involve common people in these activities be undertaken.