Tamil Nadu Minister Thiru. Siva V.Meyyanathan inaugurates the conference on “Planning for a Net Zero City” today

Chennai: Minister for Environment, Pollution Control & Ex-Servicemen, Government of Tamil Nadu, Thiru. Siva V. Meyyanathan inaugurated the conference on “Planning for a Net Zero City” in Chennai today. The conference was organized by Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) under the world urban Campaign by UN-Habitat. The NIUA is the Knowledge Partner and the Environment Management Centre is an associate partner for the event.
Hon’ble Minister Thiru. Siva V. Meyyanathan was the Chief Guest of the event; Dr. Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar, Chair Urban Resilience – Global Resilience Cities Network, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), New Delhi delivered the special address in the inaugural session. More than 100 delegates representing various sectors participated in the conference.
Sessions like “Pathways to Net Zero”, “Making Net Zero happen in Chennai”, “Way Forward for the City” were covered in the daylong conference.

Eminent speakers including renowned experts such as Mr. T. Shivaraman, MD & CEO – Orient Green Power Co. Ltd., Dr. Prasad Modak, MD – Environmental Manage Centre Pvt. Ltd., Dr. Indumathi M Nambi, Professor – IIT Madras, Mr. Deepak Srivastava, IFS , Member Secretary – Tamil Nadu State Wet Land Authority and many others spoke at the conference.

Net Zero: Net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere, by oceans and forests for instance. It has been established that, in order to avert the worst impacts of climate change and preserve a liveable planet, global temperature increase needs to be limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. To keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C (as called for in the Paris Agreement) emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
India’s Commitments towards Net Zero: At the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), our Prime Minister made a commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Glasgow of achieving a Net Zero emission target by 2070.
The COP27 at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt concluded less than a month ago, with a decision to establish a new “Loss and Damage” Fund. This may be considered a milestone, from the point of view of apportioning responsibility to developed nations as they have been historically responsible for the present state of affairs.
Initiatives by Tamil Nadu: The Tamil Nadu government is drafting many solutions to leapfrog the State to a greener, cleaner and more resilient State. The key elements for the transformation are Affordability, Sustainability and Scalability’. The TN Government in a landmark decision, accorded permission to establish the Tamil Nadu Green Climate Company, a Special Purpose Vehicle to implement three key missions – Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission, the Green Tamil Nadu Mission, and the Tamil Nadu Wetlands Mission.
While broad plans are being made for the State, it is necessary to have a concrete plan to make Chennai a Net Zero City integrating the policies of the State to apply to the city.