THE GOAN
India’s leading conservation organisation WWF-India in partnership with Corporation of The City of Panaji, supported by ICLEI-South Asia, will be organising the ‘One Planet Streets for All’ - a public event to raise awareness and gather support for adopting smarter and greener choices of commute, while making the roads more inclusive for the benefit and safety of all road users. The event will be held on May 6 along the Dayanand Bandodkar Marg stretch in Panaji from 6.30 am to 9.30 am and will provide citizens of Goa a traffic-free stretch to participate in various activities like cycling, walking, interactive games, fitness exercises, music and much more. The event aims to mobilise support from the citizens of the state for smart and eco-friendly mobility choices and to ask city administration to adopt practices that help make Goa environment-friendly and sustainable in the long run.
The ‘One Planet Streets for All’ is WWF-India’s initiative to promote sustainable mobility as part of its global ‘One Planet City Challenge’ platform. ‘Streets for All’ represents the belief that roads are public infrastructure and everybody has an equal right to use them, irrespective of their mode of transport. The purpose of this event is to inspire people to give up on unsustainable modes of commuting to reduce their carbon footprint as well as, address mobility and safety concerns for pedestrians and cyclists.
Mobility accounts for about one-quarter of the global energy related CO2 emissions, with much of this occurring in cities. According to the 2017 Global Burden of Disease, some 1.1 million people in India die prematurely each year from diseases directly related to air pollution, making it the fifth leading cause of death in the country.
Of the total number of registered vehicles in Goa, more than 90 per cent are privately owned thus making Goa one of the states with the highest car ownership density in the country. All other possible modes of commuting such as walking, cycling, car-pooling etc. are recreationally done and not the choice for mobility. This is due to the fact that the space meant for more sustainable modes are either encroached upon or being reduced due to increasing pressure of private vehicles. Sustainable urban mobility thus requires a mind shift: where private motorised vehicles give way to sustainable transport modes and better lifestyle choices, including public transport, cycling, walking or car-pooling.
The mission of WWF-India is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. First established in WWF-Sweden in 2011, the One Planet City Challenge (OPCC), earlier named the Earth Hour City Challenge, aims to mobilise action and support from cities in the transition towards a climate friendly future. Since then WWF has engaged over 400 cities across five continents. OPCC was introduced in India in 2012, and has seen participation of 24 cities since then. The city of Panaji joined the One Planet City Challenge in 2013 and is one of the three finalist cities from India in this year’s challenge.
