THE BRIHANMUMBAI Municipal Corporation will now form a Climate Cell for successful implementation of the “ambitious yet achievable” Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) that has set an ambitious target of reaching complete carbon neutrality by 2050.
The BMC has committed to strengthening its existing environment department, updating greenhouse gas emissions inventory and climate and air pollution risks and vulnerability assessment every two years and reviewing and revising the plan every five years.
For its successful implementation combined with financial support, BMC’s Climate Action Cell will be part of a year-long capacity building and knowledge sharing programme with C40 and the City of Oslo to develop its Climate Budget.
The cell is expected to get planners, who have worked in areas of climate and sustainability and scientists on the panel so that the BMC does not lose track of what has been planned. MCAP has concluded that in the Business as Usual (BAU) scenario, and with no actions and interventions, Mumbai’s Green House Gases (GHG) emissions are expected to reach 64.8 million tonnes by 2050, increasing 2.7 times between 2019-2050.
This is slightly higher than the Indian level BAU trajectory of 2.5 times. In 2019, Mumbai’s GHG emissions were 23.42 million tonnes.
MCAP has come up with an ‘ambitious yet achievable plan for 30 per cent emissions reduction by 2030, 44 per cent by 2040 and net-zero by 2050 against base year emissions. In the civic budget 2021-22, the administration has allocated Rs 1 crore for the proposed creation of a climate cell.