‘Reduce travel time for cleaner air’

CMS Environment and CEPT University jointly organized a panel discussion on 'Confronting Climate Change: Towards Carbon Neutral Indian Cities' on the CEPT campus on Tuesday.

The discussion featured six eminent speakers and was moderated by Prof CK Koshi of CEPT.

According to Christopher Kost, technical director, ITDP and one of the speakers, wider roads, elevated expressways and multi-storey parking are merely contributing towards increasing GHG emissions.

"Such facilities give more leverage or room for people to drive cars, thereby leading to congestion in various pockets of big and small cities. In fact, cars produce highest GHG emissions - 195 grams of carbon dioxide per passenger/ kilometre. Comparatively, two-wheelers emit 58 grams, three-wheelers 56 grams and bus only 30 grams."

Kost said that nearly 15% of Ahmedabad's two-wheeler users now make use of BRTS services, which is a great step towards reducing GHG emissions. Kost added, "The conventional thought of higher density leading to increase in pollution is incorrect for, on the contrary, higher density leads to less polluted and shorter trips, causing lesser GHG emissions."

However, Kost warned that in order to make higher density work for cities, it was vital that block sizes be small and designs are made pedestrian-friendly. Panelist Saket Sarraf, who is a planner and analyst, highlighted certain pointers under green building insights.

He said, "In earlier times, there was a connection between people, climate and buildings, which has been lost today, leading to lesser eco-friendly structures. Buildings otherwise have the highest potential in reducing GHG emissions."

It's important that while choosing to live in one of the 'green' buildings, one evaluates the structure on the basis of its performance rather than the intention of the builder, Sarraf concluded.