MoU for sustainable urban development

Sweden will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India for sustainable urban development.

To be signed in March or April

Counsellor, Environment, Climate Change and Energy, Embassy of Sweden, Karl Edberg, has said the MoU will be entered into sometime in March or April.

The MoU will be signed with the Ministry of Urban Development of the Union government. “Once it is signed, it will be open for the entire country. Each city can utilise it to generate energy from waste in a sustainable manner and use the biogas generated for urban transport,” Mr. Edberg told The Hindu on Friday.

The Swedish Counsellor was here to lead a 15-member delegation that included representatives of the Swedish Energy Agency and businessmen to participate in deliberations with officials of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation on solid waste management and carry forward its collaboration through the Swedish International Development Agency that began more than four years ago.

Waste-to-energy project

Mr. Edberg said that currently a waste-to-energy project was on in collaboration with Indraprastha Gas Limited and it would close this year.

The biogas produced can be upgraded to CNG. “And Sweden has proven technology for it,” Mr. Edberg said. Delhi has 34 sewage treatment plants and 16 sites. It can be adopted for solid waste management by any city, he said answering a question on whether cities like Visakhapatnam could implement it.

The gains of switching over from fossil fuels to CNG could be immense in terms of reducing pollution and more importantly, bringing down fuel imports.

He recalled that Sweden’s MoU on health had been in place for many years with the Consulate collaborating at different levels.