CHENNAI: The British high commission is keen to help Chennai Corporation in preparing a road map in its fight against global warming, said British high commissioner to India, Richard Stagg. He was speaking to mediapersons at Ripon Buildings on Wednesday.

"In the wake of climatic change, Chennai, a coastal city, will face disastrous effects. And developed economies that have supplied the bulk of problems will have to give the bulk of solutions," Stagg said. The British high commission is funding the initiatives of ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) - Local Governments for Sustainability, a consortium of local bodies, in identifying action plans to reduce energy consumption in municipal corporation services and its operations.

As a first step in that direction, ICLEI has identified 50 cities in the south Asia and 42 cities in India, which includes nine cities from south India (Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai, Guntur, Vizag, Vijaywada, Mysore, Bangalore), to adress climate change. ICLEI has completed a detailed energy and carbon emission inventory for all the participating cities and identified sectors where the respective municipal corporations can take the lead.

"It concerns issues of management of solid waste, of using energy more efficiently so that supply meets demand, and of managing water so that people's livelihoods are met," UK government first secretary (climate change), Fergus Auld said.

In June this year, cities in south India had come together to sign Mysore Call', which acknowledged the crucial role of cities and local governments in confronting the challenge of climate change.

CHENNAI: As the clock turned 9 on Wednesday night, street lights went off and lights were switched off in homes as many parts of Chennai opted to go dark for nine minutes. The objective: to shed more light on the effects of global warming. Corporate houses such as Infosys, too, switched off lights in their buildings, food courts and pathways during the period.

In the morning, M Suman, a Class VII school student embarked on a nine-hour, non-stop drumming performance. On Tuesday, students of Velammal Vidyalaya released 99 pigeons at the Marina. The voluntary switch-off and the series of events in Chennai were all part of the 99999 lights out campaign' spearheaded by Exnora International, aimed at adopting measures to mitigate the effects of global warming.

On Wednesday, Vignesh, a student of A M M Matriculation School, stood outside Ripon Building to watch the lights being switched off. V Kaveri, a college student SMSed her friends, reminding them to turn off lights for nine minutes. Director Vasanth, actor-politician S Ve Shekar, CPI leader R Nallakannu, managing director of Indian Bank, M S Sundarajan, and hockey and football players extended their support.

The campaign, initiated in August 2008 by Exnora, attracted wider participation this year, with Chennai Corporation joining in. Effective Thursday, the local body has banned the use of high-energy incandescent bulbs in buildings in the 10 zonal and 155 ward offices. "Offices which show a reduction in consumption of energy will be suitably rewarded," said Rajesh Lakhoni, commissioner, Chennai Corporation. The civic agency distributed free saplings to all visitors to the building during the outage. Ninety-nine people spoke on the effects of global warming.

"We will take up a similar initiative next year, on October 10, the 1010101010 lights out campaign," said M B Nirmal, founder, Exnora International.