Homeless people, ragpickers, slum dwellers and people displaced in the city will testify the impact of climate change on their lives and livelihood at a public hearing tomorrow marking United Nations Day.
The hearing is a part of the run-up to the UN's Copenhagen Meet on Climate Change and will be held at the St Xavier's college in South Mumbai, a coalition of civil society organisations said today.
The testimonies will highlight how the marginalised communities actually consume far less electricity than those living in formal houses. "They travel by public transport, they consume less water and live in structures which leave a much smaller carbon footprint and in fact their needs are met from recycled product," the NGOs said.
The findings will be taken up by the civil society organisations who are campaigning for a more equity oriented climate change policy, they said. The emphasis right now seems to be to get the developing countries to pay for and develop alternate technologies, they said adding there are so many appropriate and tested low carbon footprint technologies which are waiting to be mainstreamed and upscaled.
Among the jurors would be Supriya Sule MP, member of the Parliamentary group on climate change. Around 350 representatives from Mumbai and neighbouring Thane district will participate, they added.
