Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said minimising carbon footprint must be the “central focus” as the country urbanises. Speaking at the ‘One World One Realty’ event, Puri, who oversees the housing portfolio, said the government has launched a global housing technology challenge to tap into sustainable solutions.
“We are well aware of the adverse impact of climate change, minimizing the carbon footprint must remain the central focus even as we urbanise. We owe this to the health of our future generations,” Puri said at the summit.
He said the housing technology challenge will come up with practical solutions to make buildings and dwellings more sustainable and added that the ‘lighthouse projects‘ under the project will come up in six varied geoclimatic zones which can be emulated as per local conditions.
The diplomat-turned-politician said India is fully committed to attaining the UN’s sustainable development goals by the deadline of 2030, and also reminded that the target was adopted after the launch of dedicated urbanization programmes by the government after coming to power in 2014.
Since the Narendra Modi government came to power, there have been massive investments in urbanization including on housing through the Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana, sanitation through the Swachh Bharat Mission, modern cities through the SMART cities programme, he said.
Ease of living has become the primary objective of policy, he said, adding the Centre unleashed one of the most ambitious, comprehensive, planned urbanization programmes undertaken anywhere in the world.
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