The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday released Chennai’s first Climate Action Plan (CAP), which has been designed to serve as a roadmap for the city to become carbon neutral by 2050, two decades before the nation’s target of net zero by 2070.
The CAP, released by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin at the Secretariat, will focus on six priority areas such as electrical grid and renewable energy, building energy, sustainable transport, solid waste management, urban flooding and water scarcity, vulnerable populations and health.
By 2050, the city aims to include electrification of 100% of the MTC bus fleet, expanding urban nature to cover 35% of the city, and retrofitting existing slum housing for heat resilience to become carbon neutral.
The CAP was released in the presence of Minister for Environment, Climate Change Siva V. Meyyanathan, Chief Secretary V. Irai Anbu, Additional Chief Secretary to Departments of Environment, Climate Change Supriya Sahu, Mayor R. Priya and C40 Cities delegates.
Speaking to The Hindu, Ms. Sahu said: “The climate action plan is based on science and data. First thing is to know where the emissions are coming from. With an emissions inventory, we will plan decarbonisation pathways for specific sectors. The CAP prescribes sectoral targets and action plans.”
One of the targets for the energy sector is 100% renewable power for the grid. Ms. Sahu said this would be achieved in a phased manner with detailed targets such as reworking tariff, scaling up installation on solar power, replacing coal-fired plants with biomass renewable power capacity and so on, she said.
The approach taken for the Chennai CAP would be applied to Coimbatore and places such as the Nilgirs, Rajapalayam and Rameswaram, Ms. Sahu said.
The CAP was developed with support from C40 Cities in collaboration with the Urban Management Centre, Ahmedabad, and aligns with the Paris Climate Accords, setting emission reduction targets of 1% increase by 2030, 40% decrease by 2040 and achieve net zero by 2050, compared to 2018-19 emission levels.
