Maharashtra only one in India to win inaugural ‘Inspiring Regional Leadership’ award – Times of India

Maharashtra is the only state in the country which has won the Inspiring Regional Leadership award at the inaugural leadership awards of the Under2 Coalition held at the Stirling Castle in Scotland. The Under2 Coalition is the largest global network of states and regions committed to climate action and is made up of more than 260 governments who represent 1.75 billion people and 50% of the global economy.

The award ceremony was held to coincide with the ongoing COP26 summit in Glasgow. Addressing state governments across the world in Scotland, Maharashtra’s environment minister Aaditya Thackeray stated that being India’s most developed state, Maharashtra plans to exceed expectations on the timeline of going carbon-neutral.



“Maharashtra is taking the lead to reach net-zero at the earliest, so that the rest of our country has the room to go through rapid industrialisation and then reach net-zero as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision. As a government, the state will inspire confidence in investors and businesses to commit to climate action and to usher in a new era of sustainable development,” the minister said, adding that Maharashtra will lead the example of how climate action and thriving industry can co-exist.

After bagging the prestigious award, Thackeray along with world leaders, committed to strong climate actions by 2030. “The commitments under this include providing support to cities to go net-zero by 2050, preparing a state climate change action plan, 100% of new public fleet purchases to be zero-emission by 2030 in major regions, empowering disadvantaged communities to develop local, scalable climate solutions, improving representation of women in climate change-related governance structure…,” said an official.

The minister said that advanced economies like the UK, USA must “go net-zero faster than the emerging world to ensure a just transition and equitable development”.