C40 members assure Karachi mayor of support for environmental management

Will provide financial, technical support to deal with climate change in Karachi

Members of the C40 Global Mayors Summit assured Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar of providing financial and technical support to deal with climate change and improve environmental conditions in Karachi, during the summit's seventh session held at Copenhagen from October 9 to October 12.

The assurance came in response to Akhtar's request to lend support for environmental management in Karachi.

Earlier at the summit, Akhtar highlighted the major environmental issues faced in Karachi, including air pollution, noise pollution, visual pollution, thermal pollution, lack of proper waste management infrastructure and degradation of water bodies.

Stating that Karachi is lagging behind in the area of environmental management, he requested the summit's members to extend financial and technical support for environmental management in the city.

On the sidelines of the summit, Akhtar met the mayors of other metropolises and invited them to visit Karachi.

The summit was attended by over 70 mayors of different metropolises as well as global decision makers, business executives, scientists and citizens of different countries. The attendees committed to actively participating in and initiating ventures to combat climate change and devising solutions for creating more livable settlements.

The C40 World Mayors Summit is a series of symposiums where member cities share innovative solutions to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse emissions. Over the past decade, C40 has convened six mayor summits, hosted by London in 2005, New York in 2007, Seoul in 2009, Sao Paulo in 2014 and Mexico City in 2016. However, it was for the first time in the seventh C40 Global Mayors Summit, 2019, hosted in Copenhagen, that citizens too attended the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2019.