City’s first citizen, London mayor to co-chair air quality network

BENGALURU: A new air quality network, part of the C40 cities climate leadership group, will be co-chaired by Bengaluru’s Mayor along with the Mayor of London. The group is a dedicated network of global cities to tackle the problem of air pollution in large cities. A joint announcement was made on Tuesday by Mayor Sampath Raj of Bengaluru and Mayor Sadiq Khan of London.

Speaking about London’s efforts to tackle air pollution, Khan said, “I’m doing everything in my power, including introducing the world’s first toxicity charge for more polluting cars, bringing forward the ultra-low emission zone and also cleaning up our bus and taxi fleet.”Six cities from India — Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata and Mumbai — will be part of this group. Worldwide, 90 cities have echoed their commitment to urgent action on climate change and air pollution. Membership will provide access to learning from the network as well as specific data from other cities including data on transport, buildings, energy generation and waste, a statement said.

“The city’s population has grown from 35 lakh in 1985 to nearly 1.1 crore today. While this has brought growth, it has also resulted in deteriorating air quality due to increased traffic and construction. I am keeping a close eye on how air quality impacts health and well-being of our citizens,” Sampath Raj said.
The C40 group has been working with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) by sharing best practises in urban development. “We are extremely excited to be co-leading the new network along with London. We will also bring global cities together in Bengaluru next year to discuss tackling air quality,” Raj said.  London will try the network to analyse pollution in up to 1,000 hot spots across the city.