Thai northeastern city wins national-level OPCC top prize

BANGKOK, September 18 (TNA) - Muang Yasothon Municipality in the Thai Northeast has won the national-level top prize and the international-level 7th prize of livable city 2018 under the One Planet City Challenge (OPCC) Project, run by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), for its outstanding management to excellently cope with the problem of climate change and the internal transport system. WWF, in cooperation with the Greenhouse Gas Information Center under the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organizaton (TGO), presented the honorable prizes to the Muang Yasothon Municipality in Yasothon Province at a ceremony held in Bangkok on September 17. WWF Thailand Conservation Program Manager Gordon Congdon stated that the OPCC Project is a WWF major approach to promote and support the Thai Kingdom on negotiations about the problem of climate change and on attempts, backed by sound cooperation of local communities, to meet the national commitment based on the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Congdon noted that WWF emphasized this year's OPCC awards, in which 10 selected Thai cities contested with other 122 cities across the world, in the outstanding management of internal transport systems on the sustainable basis. "The main OPCC contesting theme this year is a major environmental challenge of global cities because almost one fourth of carbon dioxide emissions come from their transport systems. The development of their management to improve their people's quality of life without any disturbance to the global ecology is, thus, necessary", Congdon explained. The WWF Thailand manager expressed his appreciation to the participating cities to share their experiences in the reduction of their carbon dioxide emissions and voiced his hope that other cities will take the Muang Yasothon Municipality and other winning cities as their models and inspiration to further develop their own cities. Meanwhile, Muang Yasothon Municipality Mayor Weerawat Paktaranikorn said that his local municipality's policy on maintaining its traditional identity of a simple, green with no factories, but pedaled-bike-riding, and kinsfolk-like life styles of local people and the ongoing low carbon action plan under the municipal development strategy 2018-2021 were the key factors for his small, peaceful and long-established city to have won the prestige OPCC prizes in 2018. (TNA)