Indian Railways have started their CoP‐21 campaign regarding their role and initiatives for reducing carbon footprint by India. Being a big player in the transport industry and the most energy efficient form of mass transportation, Indian Railways will play an important role in fulfilling the country’s commitment for reduction in emission of Green House Gases. Apart from increasing the share of rail mode in freight transport from 36% to 45% as committed in the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted by India contributing to sizeable reduction in carbon footprint, Indian Railways are taking actions for improving energy efficiency, increasing share of renewables and more efficient Management of Water.
As a part of their campaign, Ministry of Railways conducted a seminar on 10th Nov. ’15 wherein senior officials of Ministry of Railways and its PSUs participated. Apart from discussing the strategies for increasing the modal share of rail transport as envisaged in the INDCs, other ‘Climate Change’ topics like energy efficiency in industries, sustainable habitation including green buildings were also discussed in this seminar through the presentations made by experts in the field like Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Indian Green Building Congress (IGBC) of CII and TERI. During this meeting, salient feature of India’s INDCs with specific reference to INDCs on rail transport were discussed. Many of these subjects can lead to new policy initiatives and actions in IR in the coming days.
The seminar was chaired by Sh. A.K. Mital, Chairman, Railway Board and was attended by Sh. Hemant Kumar, Member Mechanical, Sh. Pradeep Kumar, Member Staff and many senior Railway officials from the Ministry as well as its PSUs. The seminar was organized by the Environment Directorate of Railway Board and conducted by Sh. K.Swaminathan, Advisor.
