Pune News : Golden Dialogue on Climate Action for Sustainability held in Pune

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The second session of ‘Golden Dialogues’ was successfully conducted on 11th March 2023 on the topic ‘Climate Action for Sustainability’. ‘Golden Dialogues’ is a series of panel discussions on the topics central to the changing urban landscape of India, organized by the V K Group, Pune, as a part of their 50th year celebrations. 

The panelists consisted of stalwarts in the climate action plans and policies: Prof. Amitav Mallik, Head of EECC and Founder Trustee of Pune International Center; Dr. Sunita Purushottam, Head of Sustainability at Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd.; and Abhishek Rajurkar, Asst. VP at National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd., moderated by Dr. Anagha Purohit, Partner at VK:e environmental.

Dr. Poorva Keskar, partner at VK, opened the session reminding the listeners of the adverse effects of climate change experienced on a daily basis, including floods, droughts and unpredictable weather. While cities occupy only 2% of the earth’s surface, they consume almost 78% of the world’s energy and produce almost 60% of the world’s GAG emissions. 

As a pioneer in bringing the issue of environmental protection into the forefront of National Security, Prof. Amitav Mallik has developed a vision for carbon-neutral PMR and convenes the Climate Collective at Pune. His talk centered around reimagining climate secure cityscapes. Dr. Sunita elaborated about her experience at the COP27 and India’s stand on the climate action policies. Rather than focusing only on ‘net-zero’ concepts, she stressed on the need to ‘reduce’ the use of resources and energy on an individual level and for the people to demand for environmentally responsible products. A financer in the construction sector, Abhishek Rajurkar gave an insight about the carbon market, where carbon credits are traded as a commodity and the impact it can have on the global carbon emissions.

During the session, Sustainability Initiatives, a sister concern of VK Group also launched their book ‘SI Imprint: Confluence’ which is a compilation of the work done by SI in the last 10 years. The report was released at the hands of the Chief Guest, Pradeep Bhargava, Chairman of Automotive Stampings and Assemblies Ltd. Pune.