Housing Ministry to help combat climate change

<p class="p1">Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri has launched the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2.0.</p>
<p class="p1">"The CSCAF will provide a clear roadmap for cities towards combating climate change while planning and implementing their actions, including investments," said an official press release.</p>
<p class="p1">In the last decade, an increasing frequency of cyclones, floods, heat waves, water scarcity and drought-like conditions have had adverse impacts on many of our cities. Such extreme events and risks cause loss of life as well as impact economic growth.</p>
<p class="p1">"This assessment framework was developed after a review of existing frameworks and assessment approaches adopted throughout the world followed by series of an extensive consultative process with more than 26 organizations and 60 experts from different thematic areas," the release further add.</p>
<p class="p1">The framework has 28 indicators across several categories including energy and green buildings, urban planning, green cover and biodiversity, mobility and air quality, water management, and waste management.</p>
<p class="p1">The climate centre for cities under the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) will be supporting MoHUA in the implementation of CSCAF.</p>
<p class="p1">The Minister also launched ‘Streets for People Challenge’ in a virtual event organized by the smart cities mission, which will be focusing pedestrianization of streets for walking and creating public spaces.</p>
<p class="p1">"The Ministry will support cities across the country to develop a unified vision of streets for people in consultation with stakeholders and citizens. Adopting a participatory approach, cities will be guided to launch their own design competitions to gather innovative ideas from professionals for quick, innovative, and low-cost tactical solutions," Puri said.</p>
<p class="p1">"It aims to inspire cities to create walking-friendly and vibrant streets through quick, innovative, and low-cost measures. All cities participating in the challenge shall be encouraged to use the ‘test-learn-scale’ approach to initiate both, flagship and neighborhood walking interventions. The interventions can include inter alia creating pedestrian-friendly streets in high footfall areas, re-imagining under-flyover spaces, re-vitalizing dead neighborhood spaces, and creating walking links through parks and institutional areas," the Minister said.</p>.