COP26: Maharashtra Wins Award For Climate Action, Becomes Only Indian State To Get Recognition

Maharashtra has been awarded the Inspiring Regional Leadership Award from Under2 Coalition for Climate Action. It is the only Indian state to win one of the three awards by U2 in Scotland.

Aditya Thackeray, Maharashtra's Environment Minister, received the award on behalf of the state.

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"This state wants to lead the way in India to tackle climate change. The Chief Minister (Uddhav Thackeray) is a passionate wildlife enthusiast and conservationist, and he has given us the opportunity to dream of a better future, a greener future. We have started with a movement called Majhi Vasundhara, which means My Planet. We are focussing on the traditional five elements of nature," Aditya Thackeray said in his acceptance speech in Glasgow.

He also spoke about shifting to green energy and moving away from conventional energy like thermal or coal energy.

"Just recently we've solarised a highway and we will be generating 250 MW of energy. We have put out the tender document and we will be generating 250MW solar energy from the new highway between Mumbai and Nagpur."

Mangrove forests in Maharashtra

In July, the Maharashtra government unveiled a comprehensive Electric Vehicle Policy for 2021, which has been designed to accelerate the adoption of EVs in the state. It also aims at making Maharashtra a leading manufacturing and investment hub for the EV ecosystem globally.

The overarching aim is for EVs to contribute to 10 percent of new vehicle registrations ¨C or 3,00,000 EVs ¨C a year by 2025.

The other two awards were won by British Columbia (Canada) for Creative Climate Solutions and Quebec (Canada) for Climate Partnerships.

Thackeray, the youngest Cabinet Minister in the state government, holds the Environment portfolio in one of India's most industrially advanced states.