Kochi: The very survival of Kochi city is likely to be at stake by the middle of the century when the sea level is projected to rise by 0.9 metres as the city area averages only 1.5 metres above the mean sea level, according to Mayor Tony Chammany.
He was making a presentation on ‘Climate change and modern slavery: An overview of India’ at a global conference on ‘Modern slavery and climate change: The commitment of the cities,’ organised by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Vatican.
He said that despite being a modern and socially coherent urban area, all sorts of modern slavery exist in Kochi though much less compared to the national average. He cited poor working and living conditions of migrant labourers and exploitation by employers as examples.
Mr Chammany was the only representative from Asia who attended the conference. The participants from various countries discussed topics like human trafficking, climate change and sustainable development. Vatican had invited only 50 mayors of leading cities like New York, Paris, Rome, Stockholm and California for the meeting.
After the session, Pope Francis interacted with the mayors, who signed a joint declaration on working against challenges like human-induced climate change, poverty and social marginalisation, including human trafficking. The declaration will be submitted to the UN global summit on climate change which will be held in Paris in December.
Mr. Chammany also attended a symposium on ‘Prosperity, people and planet: Achieving sustainable development in our cities’ organised by the Pontifical Academy in association with the United Nations.
