Events

Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim unveiled the Kolkata Climate Action Plan; hailed nationally and globally; that focuses on urban poor, solar, Ramsar tagged East Kolkata wetlands, heat action plan, biomass burning and industry emission reduction. Air pollution and public health emerged as key sectors*

On June 5, 2025, during the occasion of World Environment Day , Firhad Hakim,Mayor of Kolkata released the first of its kind & much awaited Kolkata Climate Action Plan ( KCAP ) in presence of eminent global & national experts, consulate members , senior officials of KMC as well as close to 200 eminent Kolkatans . The plan has been prepared by a committee involving experts from all over the country , and is coordinated by non profit , Environment Governed Integrated Organisation (EnGIO ) & Climate Action Network South Asia ( CANSA). Organisations like Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) , Observer Research Foundation ( ORF) , Climate Trends & Kolkata Press Club are also associated with the programme. Apart from Mayor, Firhad Hakim; Member Mayor in Council KMC, Debasish Kumar & Swapan Samaddar , Municipal Commissioner , Dhaval Jain ; British Deputy High Commissioner Andrew Fleming , German Vice Consul Simon Kleinpaß, UNICEF Kolkata chief Manjur Hossain , state pollution control board chairman Kalyan Rudra and international climate expert and one of the leads of global anti fossil fuel movement Harjeet Singh; and climate experts , Jayanta Basu of EnGIO , Sanjay Vashist of CANSA & environmentalist Prof Arunabha Majumder were also part of the launch of the KCAP report & bilingual KCAP website (https://www.kolkataclimateactionplan.in/ ) . The launch was followed by a panel discussion where climate experts Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee, IIT , Kharagpur , Prof. Abhijit Chatterjee , Bose Institute , Dr. Arup Halder , Pulmonologist, CMRI, Dr. SP Gon Chowdhury , Solar expert & advisor , Government of India , Prof. Arunabha Majumder , Former Director , Head, AIIPH&H , an emeritus Prof. Jadavpur University , Prof. Tathagata Chatterjee , XMI, Bhubaneswar, , Prof. Aniuruddha Mukherjee , Calcutta University , Alok Mukherjee , Industrialist participated . Dr. Jayanta Basu moderated the discussion.

The KCAP has come up with 30 evidence based recommendations for stakeholder discussion that emphasized on reducing vulnerability of urban poor by setting up climate smart slums, emphasize on conserving EKW vis-à-vis climate change , undertaking city’s Heat Action Plan , emphasizing on more solar installations & likewise .Mayor , Hakim termed it as Kolkata Survival Action Plan & vouched to implement it on a war footing .