In September 2016, ICLEI South Asia inked four MoUs in Rajkot and Nagpur on sustainable, low carbon development, with support from SDC, GIZ, and WRI. While under the Capacity Building Project on Low Carbon and Climate Resilient City Development in India (CapaCITIES), ICLEI will be working to develop and support/facilitate implementation of the city’s climate change action plan, focusing both on mitigation and adaptation plans, for the Building Efficiency Accelerator project, ICLEI is the technical consultant to develop and steer Rajkot’s building energy efficiency programme through policy development, action plans and institutionalising of a monitoring framework. Through the Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: the “Urban Nexus” project, ICLEI is working on integrating food, water and energy sectors in cities of Rajkot and Nagpur.

On September 26 and 29 respectively, city governments of Nagpur and Rajkot signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GIZ Urban Nexus and ICLEI South Asia under the project “Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: the Urban Nexus”. The MoU in Nagpur was signed by Mr. Shravan Hardikar, Commissioner, Nagpur Municipal Corporation; Ms. Ruth Erlbeck, Project Director, GIZ Urban Nexus and Mr. Emani Kumar, Executive Director, ICLEI South Asia. The ceremony was attended by Mr. Pravin Datke, Honorable Mayor, Mr. Satish Hole, Deputy Mayor and Mr. Sudhir Raut, Chairman Standing Committee. Two days later, Rajkot – the second project city for Urban Nexus – signed an MoU with the project partners. The Commissioner, Mr. Banchhanidhi Pani welcomed all the delegates and promised to extend support for further implementation of the project. Also present were Dr. Darshitaben Shah, Deputy Mayor and Mr. Pushkarbhai Patel, Standing Committee Chairman, along with other senior officials of the Corporation. The project will be implemented over a period of 30 months and will help to identify and develop nexus-compliant projects that are also in consonance with the urban development plan of the project cities.

Rajkot city government signed two more MoUs with ICLEI South Asia and international agencies on the same day. The City, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), is collaborating with ICLEI South Asia and partners to implement the three year project, “Capacity Building Project on Low Carbon and Climate Resilient City Development in India (CapaCITIES)”. The project will be implemented in Rajkot, Udaipur, Siliguri and Coimbatore. The stakeholder workshop to kick off the project has already been held in Rajkot, in July 2016.

Rajkot signed a third MoU for implementing the Building Efficiency Accelerator project under the Sustainable Energy for All initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme. This project is financially supported by the World Resource Institute (WRI). ICLEI South Asia will be the technical consultant to lead Rajkot’s building energy efficiency through reforms in local building bylaws, identification and implementation of priority projects in building sector, and institutionalising a monitoring framework. A regional partners’ meeting for the same project was recently held in Singapore.