The Union Environment ministry will organise a three-day conference in Odisha's Bhubaneswar to discuss issues related to climate change and pollution control. The conference, titled 'Vayu', will be organised at Bhubaneswar's Siksha 'O' Anusandhan University from December 2 to December 4, the ministry said in a statement.
It will be attended by more than 500 participants, including students, academics, experts from state pollution control boards and environment secretaries, municipal commissioners, scientists and engineers. "The conference will focus on varied issues ranging from scientific discussions on climate change and pollution control to enriching our understanding of air quality from ancient scriptures and texts," the ministry said.
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The aim of the conference is to build upon the multidimensional efforts undertaken by governments to achieve air quality targets as set in the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) by uniting all important stakeholders, it said. 'National Clean Air City' awards, based on Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan, will be handed out to the nine best-performing cities for meeting air quality targets and implementation of corrective, preventive and mitigation actions.
NCAP is a national-level strategy for a 20-30 per cent reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 2024 with 2017 as the base year for comparison. The programme covers 132 non-attainment cities, which do not meet the prescribed national ambient air quality standards. Under NCAP, city-specific action plans have been prepared that include measures for strengthening the air quality monitoring network, reducing vehicular and industrial emissions, increasing public awareness, etc. PTI GVS SZM
