CHENNAI: What can Chennai possibly learn from Gotheborg, a port city in Scandinavia and the second largest of Sweden?

Everything, from its traffic networks to power generation-and-supply, is at least one generation ahead of what is in place here and seems impossible to replicate in the near future.

But as Mayor of Gotheborg, Goran Johansson, here in the city with other city officials on a 10-day-visit as a part of their around-the-globe sea voyage, put it at a seminar on "Sustainable City Planning Development" on Tuesday: "nature, air and water are global concerns" and it was important to share knowledge about the best practices.

Mr. Johansson, who addressed the gathering through an interpreter, said: "Al Gore's documentary of climate change [An Inconvenient Truth] has created awareness that something serious would happen if we continue to disregard the environment. Now is the time to act." Environmental issues, he said, should not be taken as being against development. "It is no longer environment versus growth. All development work must be inclusive of environmental concerns."

Gotheborg city officials pointed out that though the photographs of their city today painted a rosy picture, in the mid-1980s the industrial city was covered by smog because of high industrial pollution. One of the Swedish Ministers had even famously remarked that Gotheborg would be the city to go to before going to hell. "That sparked off a serious drive among residents, industries and government officials alike," recalled Goran Varmby, head of the environment department, Business Region of Gotheborg. "Strict legislation were passed and adhered to."

The city then increased its dependence on biogas to bring down harmful emissions. It now aspires to phase out the use of fossil fuel and use only biogas for its power needs by 2050.

Susanne Planath, traffic planner for Gotheborg, in her presentation of "traffic and urban mobility planning," said the city's mass transport solution centred on pedestrians and cyclists. One of her slides had a Gotheborg official exhorting: "You can learn from our mistakes. It cost us dear."

K.S. Neelakantan, director, Department of Environment, and M.S. Ananth, director, IIT-Madras, participated in the inaugural function of the seminar. Officials of the Chennai Corporation, Metrowater and the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority participated.

G. Dattadri, former UN advisor, and R. Sivanandan from IIT-Madras made presentations on sustainable development issues in the local context.

The seminar was organised by the City of Gotheborg, the IIT-Madras, the Swedish Embassy and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

On Wednesday, the seminar will discuss environmental technology and renewable energy.

Further details on Gotheborg are available at www.goteborg.se.