Citizens' climate march in Kolkata to demand better policies

Concerned citizens of the eastern metropolis will walk together on Sunday, a day ahead of the global climate summit in Paris, to demand policy measures aligning agriculture, corporate, energy and other sectors to protect the environment.

Additionally, citizens from all sections of the society will press for local initiatives to deal with climate change, including preventing the indiscriminate felling of trees and ensuring protection of wetlands from urbanisation.

"We want the central government to formulate policies that take into consideration all the sectors to combat climate change," said Samar Bagchi, convenor of the citizens' initiative on climate crisis.

The march will start from the Hazra crossing in south Kolkata at 11 a.m.

"We hope the COP 21 arrives at a binding agreement that pins down the governments of all countries (without sacrificing the principle of common but differentiated responsibility) to emission levels that suggest a temperature increase of no more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100," he said.

The 21st Conference of Parties (CoP-21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held from November 30 to December 11 in Paris.