A clean, green Mumbai: It's possible!

Mumbai is all set for a facelift. The metropolis's name could soon figure among the top 'green' cities in the world.

Thanks to the global Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Programme launched by the Clinton Climate Initiative, Mumbai would be one of the 16 cities to set the tone for effective climate control.

The programme was launched by former US president Bill Clinton, who heads the Clinton Initiative, on Wednesday in New York. Besides mumbai, other cities that will participate in the programme include Bangkok, Berlin, Chicago, Houston, Johannesburg, Karachi, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, New York, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo, and Toronto.

The programme will provide both cities and their private building owners with access to the necessary funds to retrofit existing buildings with more energy efficient products, typically leading to energy savings between 20 to 50 per cent.

Urban areas are responsible for approximately 75 per cent of all energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Buildings account for nearly 40 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The target cities have agreed to develop a programme to make their municipal buildings more energy efficient and provide incentives for private building owners to retrofit their buildings with energy saving technologies.

While multinational corporations Honeywell, Johnson Controls Inc, Siemens and Trane will conduct energy audits, perform building retrofits, and guarantee the energy savings of the retrofit projects, ABN AMRO, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and UBS have committed to arrange $1 billion each to finance cities and private building owners to undertake these retrofits at no net cost.

The retrofit programme will be consistent with, and work within, city procurement and tendering rules. Participation in the programme will be open to local banks and companies, who will be invited to contribute to the funding pool and to expand the list of green products used in retrofits.

Mumbai is part of the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, which also comprises cities like Hong Kong, Houston, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Karachi, Lagos, Lima, London and Los Angeles. The grouping has been working with the Clinton Foundation's Climate Initiative to accelerate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.