Mobilise Your City | 08 Sep 2018

India and France have signed an implementation agreement on “MOBILISE YOUR CITY” (MYC).

  • Mobilise Your City (MYC) is part of an international initiative which is supported by the French and the German Governments and was launched at 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) meeting in December, 2015.
  • The MYC aims at supporting three pilot cities viz. Nagpur, Kochi and Ahmedabad in their efforts to reduce their Green House Gas (GHG) emissions related to urban transport by implementing urban mobility plans at local level and to help India at national level to improve their sustainable transport policy.
  • The main components of the proposed assistance are:
    • To support planning and implementation of sustainable urban transport projects,
    • Support to strengthening institutional capacity for regulating, steering and planning urban mobility, and
    • Learning and exchange formats with other cities across India for exchanges on best practices.

MOBILISE YOUR CITY

  • The MYC Partnership is a global and inclusive network of cities and countries as well as an umbrella brand of European development cooperation particularly related to the field of sustainable urban transport.
  • Besides contribution to the international climate process, it contributes to the UN’s Agenda 2030, specifically Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

A Clip on MYC

  • Other Reasons to act:
    • Better air quality- 1 million premature deaths occur per year in urban areas around the world, costing between 2 and 5% of a country’s annual GDP.
    • Reduce traffic congestion
    • Reduce road fatalities- 1.24 million deaths on roads per year worldwide and an estimated cost of around 1 to 3% of a country’s annual GDP.
    • More inclusive and liveable cities- Promoting public transport and non-motorised transport could help save US$ 100 trillion worldwide between now and 2050 and cut emissions by 40% in 2050.
    • Economic efficiency- Comprehensive mobility planning facilitates an optimised use of capital in relevant projects, and enhances the economic competitiveness of cities by improving logistics and access to jobs, basic services, education, etc.

21st Conference of Parties (COP21)

  • Popularly known as the Paris Agreement, it was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol (CMP 11).
  • It aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
  • It can be noted that the International Solar Alliance (ISA), an Indian initiative, was also launched by India and France at the sidelines of the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 Climate Conference in Paris.