The Hindu 16.02.2013
MoU for sustainable urban development
Sweden will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India for sustainable urban development.
To be signed in
March or April
Counsellor,
Environment, Climate Change and Energy, Embassy of Sweden, Karl Edberg,
has said the MoU will be entered into sometime in March or April.
The
MoU will be signed with the Ministry of Urban Development of the Union
government. “Once it is signed, it will be open for the entire country.
Each city can utilise it to generate energy from waste in a sustainable
manner and use the biogas generated for urban transport,” Mr. Edberg
told
The Hindu
on Friday.
The Swedish Counsellor was here to lead a
15-member delegation that included representatives of the Swedish Energy
Agency and businessmen to participate in deliberations with officials
of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation on solid waste management
and carry forward its collaboration through the Swedish International
Development Agency that began more than four years ago.
Waste-to-energy project
Mr.
Edberg said that currently a waste-to-energy project was on in
collaboration with Indraprastha Gas Limited and it would close this
year.
The biogas produced can be upgraded to CNG.
“And Sweden has proven technology for it,” Mr. Edberg said. Delhi has 34
sewage treatment plants and 16 sites. It can be adopted for solid waste
management by any city, he said answering a question on whether cities
like Visakhapatnam could implement it.
The gains of
switching over from fossil fuels to CNG could be immense in terms of
reducing pollution and more importantly, bringing down fuel imports.
He recalled that Sweden’s MoU on health had been in place for many years with the Consulate collaborating at different levels.