Transition To Clean Energy & Transport Is Odisha Govt’s Priority: Transport Secy

Bhubaneswar: Accelerated transition to clean energy and clean transport is a top priority for Odisha government to mitigate impacts of climate change and to adopt a sustainable roadmap towards green recovery, said Secretary, Science and Technology, Manoj Mishra.

He expressed pleasure to partner with UK Government to exchange knowledge and best practices to drive up climate ambition while speaking at the virtual webinar on ‘UK-Odisha dialogue on COP 26 and clean energy and clean transport transition’ on Thursday.

The British Deputy High Commission, Kolkata and Odisha government collaborated to organise the dialogue with support from Confederation of Indian Industry.

There are five key themes for COP 26 Climate Summit: Clean Energy, Clean Transport, Adaptation and Resilience, Nature-Based Solutions and Green Finance. The webinar focused on two of the key themes: Clean Energy and Clean Transport.

The high-level conference provided an opportunity to have focused discussions on strategic and innovative interventions to accelerate transition to zero emission vehicles and the adoption of cleaner
energy as Odisha progresses its portfolio of sustainable development policies and pathways.

As part of the COP 26 ZEVs campaign, the UK is bringing together governments from the largest and most progressive automotive markets globally through the ZEVs Transition Council, which will coordinate efforts, enabling the transition to be quicker, cheaper and
easier for all of society.

The UK is also engaging with businesses and other stakeholders to help overcome shared barriers. The experts at the event urged  businesses to commit to the uptake electric vehicles into corporate fleet and join the EV100 initiative.

The programme also focused on discussions on innovative policies and technologies that can be adopted by the state and city  governments who can sign up to Route Zero Initiative and enhance ambition on electric mobility.

British Deputy High Commissioner to Kolkata, Nick Low said: “Odisha’s achievement in climate change adaptation has been immense as we have seen from its disaster response to Cyclone Amphan and Yaas. It was delight to speak to the decision-makers and influencers who are in the frontline of mitigating climate change in Odisha. There is so much that we can and should do at the local and regional level to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through adopting clean, green energy and transport solutions. It is a journey that my own country has made, reducing the proportion of electricity produced by burning coal from 40% in 2014 to 2% today.”

Development Commissioner-cum-ACS, Pradeep Kumar Jena said, “The world needs greater ambition from companies and investors. The programme encouraged them to join the Race to Zero. This requires businesses to take robust short-term action to halve global emissions by 2030, and to achieve net zero emissions as soon as
possible, and by 2050 at the very latest.”

With three months to go for COP 26, the meet deliberated on ways to deal with climate crisis and discuss key strategies to up the
game on climate action.

The event highlighted specific commitments from businesses in line with the COP26 campaigns (clean transport, nature solutions, adaptation and resilience, energy transition and finance).