7th GEF Assembly, Global Biodiversity Framework Fund ratified (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) was recently ratified and launched at the Seventh Assembly of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in Vancouver, Canada.
Details:
- Governments, non-profits and the private sector can now contribute their funds here to ensure that the world meets the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) formulated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by 2030.
- Canada and the United Kingdom have already donated 200 million Canadian dollars and 10 million pounds respectively to the GBFF.
Key Highlights:
- The contributions will support action towards halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and putting nature on a recovery path by 2050. As much as 20 per cent of the funds would support Indigenous-led initiatives to protect and conserve biodiversity.
- It will also prioritise support for Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, which will receive more than a third of the fund’s resources. This is the first time there would be funds channeled to non-state actors like the indigenous communities.
Funding:
- Under Target 19 of GBF, at least $200 billion per year will need to be raised by 2030 for GBFF.
- The early donations are in line with the GEF Council Decision adopted in June that initial contributions for BGFF should reach $200 million from at least three donors by December 2023.
Way Forward:
- The first GBFF Council meeting will be held in January 2024, with a view to approving the first work programme at the June 2024 Council meeting.
- The first tranche of the fund is likely to be disbursed after the council meeting to ensure that first projects under the new Fund can be launched ahead of CBD’s CoP16.
No nutritional info on label except energy, FSSAI amends alcohol norms
(GS Paper 3, Health)
Why in news?
- Alcoholic beverages must not contain any nutritional information on the label except the voluntary declaration of energy content in kcal, according to a new regulation by food regulator FSSAI.
Details:
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has come out with ‘Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) First Amendment Regulations, 2023’, which will come into force on March 1, 2024.
- In the amendment, the FSSAI has also defined single malt whiskey and single grain whiskey.
- Single grain whisky is a distillate obtained from a fermented mash that uses malted or unmalted grain, and produced in a single distillery.
- It shall not include single malt whisky and blended malt whisky or blended grain whisky.
- Whisky is an alcoholic beverage made by distilling the fermented extract of malted cereal grains such as corn, rye, barley, or using neutral grain spirit or rectified grain spirit, or neutral spirit of agricultural origin, or their mixture.
Background:
- In Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations, 2018, it was stated that alcoholic beverages should not contain any nutritional information on the label.
- In the 2018 regulation, single malt or single grain whisky was defined as a distillate obtained from fermented mash that uses one particular malted barley or malted grain, respectively, distilled in pot still only, and produced in a single distillery.
Indore best city, M.P. top State in Smart Cities contest
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- The ISAC awards for 2022, organised under the Smart Cities Mission were announced by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs recently.
About India Smart Cities Award Contest (ISAC):
- This is the fourth edition of the India Smart Cities Award Contest (ISAC) awards. In the past, the ISAC witnessed three editions in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The 2022 edition was launched in April 2022 during the ‘Smart Cities-Smart Urbanisation’ event in Surat.
- There were no awards in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The ISAC recognises and rewards cities, projects and innovative ideas that are promoting sustainable development across the 100 smart cities, as well as stimulating inclusive, equitable, safe, healthy and collaborative cities leading to a better quality of life for all.
- The ISAC 2022 award had a two-stage submission process consisting of ‘Qualifying Stage’, which involved overall assessment of the city’s performance, and the ‘Proposal Stage’ which required the smart cities to submit their nominations for six award categories.
Key Highlights:
- Indore was adjudged the best smart city in India in the fourth edition of the Smart Cities Mission. This is the second consecutive time the city, often considered India’s ‘cleanest city’, won the ‘National Smart City Award’.
- Surat and Agra followed Indore on the list of India’s 100 smart cities.
- Madhya Pradesh won the best state award followed by Tamil Nadu, while Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh shared the third position.
- Chandigarh was adjudged the best Union Territory.
Categories of award:
- The awards were given in six categories in 2023—
- Project Awards (10 different themes),
- Innovation Awards (two themes),
- National/Zonal City Awards,
- State Awards,
- UT Award, and
- Partners Awards (three themes).
- Under the project category, the theme include ‘mobility’, ‘built environment’, ‘governance’, ‘integrated command and control centre (ICCC) business model’, and ‘Covid innovation’.
Top performers in various categories:
- The category “built-environment” refers to initiatives to make a city more “people friendly” including restoring and rejuvenating lakes, developing roads and making public spaces more accessible.
- Coimbatore topped the cities in this category for its initiative for restoration and rejuvenation of lakes and development of model roads.
- Chandigarh, meanwhile, did well for its public bike-sharing in the ‘mobility’ category and e-governance initiatives in the governance category.
- Ahmedabad scored the award for ‘Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) Business Model’ category for successfully implementing the traffic management system through ICCC.
- 2023 also saw a new category, the ‘Covid Innovation Award’, a recognition that Surat bagged for Surat Municipal Corporation’s initiatives taken during the pandemic. These included launching a web portal and mobile application to track Covid cases.
About Smart City Mission:
- Originally conceived for a period of six years, the Smart City Mission got its second extension until June 2024 in May 2023.
- Of the total proposed projects under it, 6,041 (76 percent) projects worth Rs 1.1 lakh crore have been completed and the remaining 1,894 projects worth Rs 60,095 crore will be completed by June 2024.
