Scorching heat waves, devastating floods, a yearly increase in temperature, high AQI levels, Mumbai has seen it all over the past few decades, with no sign that the vagaries of climate will let up anytime soon. If the island city is to weather the storm of climate change, it requires a concrete map to navigate the next couple of decades. The Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP), created by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) with the World Resources Institute (WRI) as a knowledge partner, is such a map.
In 2020, Mumbai became a part of the global C40 network, pledging a commitment to C40’s Deadline 2020 to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions by 50% by 2030 and to become net zero by 2050. The Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) has been designed to meet this goal.
Background of MCAP
Aaditya Thackeray who was the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Tourism and Protocol in the Maharashtra government in 2020, declared that a climate action plan would be created for the state. The process started in August 2021 and the MCAP was launched in March 2022.
MCAP identifies six sectors under which work needs to be carried out:
- Energy and buildings
- Integrated mobility
- Sustainable waste management
- Urban greening and biodiversity
- Air quality
- Urban flooding and water resource management
Read more: How the Mumbai Climate Action Plan can be made better
How much of MCAP has been implemented?
It has been just over two years since the MCAP was launched, and the spadework for its implementation has begun according to Lubaina Rangwala, the Programme head of Urban development at WRI. She explains that one of the significant steps has been the establishment of a Department of Environment and Climate Change in the BMC. This department was earlier a part of the Department of Solid Waste Management (SWM).
When the plan was launched it did not have enough human resources needed for its proper implementation: there was one Deputy Municipal Commissioner who headed it with two Officers on Special Duty (OSD), one executive engineer and one sub-engineer who was shared with the SWM Department. The department was woefully understaffed, especially given the complex environmental problems of a megapolis like Mumbai.
To rectify the situation, a Climate Action Cell was established with a budget allocated to it in the 2022 budget. But climate change requires multiple departments to work in conjunction. This soon became clear, during the process of setting up the cell, leading to the formation of a department. In a first, the department also has a chief engineer, which provides the anchor of continuous leadership, becoming particularly important since the position of the DMC is subject to constant rotation.
Moreover, climate officers have been appointed at the ward level too to foster coordination between departments and across wards. Most importantly, inter-departmental trainings have commenced.
Read more: Climate change: Rising sea levels ring alarm bells for Mumbai
Is making a plan enough?
Provision of human resources has been bolstered by monetary allocations. Following the announcement of the 2022 budget, climate budget tagging was done, a process which enables governments to track climate-related spending in budgets so that they can make informed decisions going ahead. To optimise the process, different departments have also been trained on budget allocation for climate concerns. In order to make the climate budget accessible for people, the BMC also came out with a Climate Budget Report, also known as the Green Budget book, for the financial year 2024-25.
Having a specific department for climate change has helped projects to get going. Lubaina cites an example, “We have been able to facilitate an urban forest project along the Mithi river that was primarily funded partly by the MLA’s or DPDC funds. The Planning Department of the BMC was leading that project, it was executed by the Planning Department. But because it was an MCAP-aligned project, every time we hit some kind of a departmental roadblock, the Environment Department played a very important role in helping coordinate.”
Since it has been two and half years since the launch of MCAP, it may only be possible to get a broad picture of how far the MCAP goals have been met. Moreover, the greenhouse gas inventory will be out next year, giving a clearer picture of the progress of MCAP.
Challenges in the implementation of MCAP
While heat waves have continued to ravage Mumbai, extreme rain events have become an increasingly common occurrence in Mumbai’s weather calendar, both clear indicators of the urgent need to tackle the climate crisis.
While MCAP is a laudable step, for it to find its best expression a stable political climate is a must, something which has been conspicuous by its absence in Maharashtra over the past five years.
Dayanand Stalin of the NGO Vanashakti says, “Definitely, MCAP has largely remained on paper after the government changed. Recently no attention was being given to it for petty political reasons. There was nothing political in that document, but this government had made it a political point that they would not do anything which is good which has been suggested by the earlier government. In that process, MCAP remains,” he said adding that
Short shrift to some key issues
Issues like sustainable waste management need immediate attention considering that the dumping grounds servicing Mumbai are filling beyond capacity with very poor implementation of segregation at source. Stalin believes that there are gaps in the MCAP itself.
He says, “MCAP is very silent on the gross mismanagement of Mumbai’s municipal waste. We have 9000 tonnes of unsegregated raw garbage lying in the open in the city. and which is the biggest methane generator in the entire city.” He also points out that the MCAP does not talk about the protection of salt marshes and the water bodies of the city.
To deal with the worsening AQI, non-motorised transport needs to be encouraged, but instead, we have seen big infra projects which privilege car owners. Despite ‘urban flooding and water resource management’ being one of the areas under MCAP, the poorest wards in the city have been most badly hit by floods, leaving a lot of scope for better implementation.
Environmentalist Debi Goenka, on the other hand, does not give much importance to the document itself, saying, “There’s nothing spelt out in terms of action. No deadline. Who has to do what and by when, that is completely missing from the document.” He also believes that there was not enough public consultation when the document was created. Stalin agrees with him on this point, wishing the creators of MCAP had consulted people working on the ground.
One of the biggest challenges is taking MCAP-aligned measures down to the ground level. This stems from the fact that there is no council right now in Mumbai, thus making it impossible to make mitigation of climate issues a part of the corporators’ budget and agenda.
The kind of disasters we are seeing, the kind of extremes that we are seeing, we need to make climate a subject of the streets,” points Lubaina and believes that a cadre of corporators and local politicians is essential to take this issue to common people.
Read more: Heat waves a real and present threat, Mumbai must speed up climate action
The way ahead
Whoever comes to power, the next five years will be crucial in shaping the way we handle the climate crisis, the repercussions of which will be felt decades from now. In fact, the next five to ten years will have to be carefully watched because most of the goals stated in MCAP have a five to ten year horizon and the reforms set into motion will have to be taken to scale.
The state government will need to play an important role of overseeing transitions to cleaner energies, and setting up sustainable and equitable food supply chains. Given that the landscape of Mumbai is changing with big-budget infrastructure projects either already constructed or in the pipeline, including climate resilient infrastructure is imperative.
Going forward, Lubaina sees the Department of Environment and Climate Change play the crucial role of coordinating the efforts of the different BMC departments. The period since its launch has been important in terms of the systemic reforms and protocols which have been put into place at the institutional level.
Stalin believes there are no real challenges in the implementation of MCAP for whichever government is elected: all it needs is political will and honesty, both of which he feels are lacking at the moment.
Finally, MCAP will influence the next Development Plan (DP) for Mumbai which is set to be renewed in 2034 by identifying priorities for the new DP, in turn shaping the face of Mumbai almost 25 years hence.