Pune Gets India’s First Carbon Neutrality Cell

Pune, 6th October 2023: A first of its kind in India, the Carbon Neutrality Facilitation Cell was recently inaugurated at the Pune Divisional Commissioner’s Office, by Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao and Joint Commissioner Poonam Mehta.

This cell aims at facilitating the process of making the Pune region carbon neutral by introducing periodic carbon accounting and monitoring of sectors like transport, waste, energy and infrastructure. The goal is to help measure emissions and propose reduction measures. The Cell is intended to lead the way for Indian local government bodies to take on appropriate climate action.

The cell’s framework has been facilitated by Pune International Centre (PIC)’s research vertical Energy, Environment and Climate Change (EECC) under the guidance of Prof. Amitav Mallik, EECC head, and PIC Trustee, and Dr. Gurudas Nulkar, Advisor, PIC Member, and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, with significant contribution from PIC’s young climate action policy researchers Shalvi Pawar, Siddharth Bhagwat and consultant Vaishali Patkar.