The Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) has laid down a 30-year road map for the city to tackle the challenges of climate change by adopting inclusive and robust mitigation and adaptation strategies.

What is MCAP ?

• The MCAP has set short-, medium- and long-term climate goals aimed towards zero emission of greenhouse gas or a net-zero target for 2050.
• It focuses on priority across six strategic areas:

1. Sustainable waste management
2. Urban greening and biodiversity
3. Urban flooding and water resource management,
4. Energy and buildings
5. Air quality and
6. Sustainable mobility

Features of the plan

• The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) prepared the plan with technical support from the World Resources Institute (WRI), India and the C40 Cities network.
• It concentrates on the city, its ecological, cultural and economical landscapes.
• The plan throws light on the current climate of the city called Baseline Assessment—climate and air pollution risks, greenhouse gas inventory.
• The plan then assesses future trajectories in the business-as-usual scenarios and assesses future emission reduction scenarios to make Mumbai net-zero by 2050.

Why does Mumbai need a climate action plan?

• As per a study conducted by WRI India on Mumbai’s vulnerability assessment, the city will face two major challenges—temperature rise, and extreme rain events which lead to flooding.
• The city is already witnessing a warming trend.
• The analysis has revealed a warming trend over 47 years (1973-2020) with an increase of 0.25°C per decade for the city.

What is the current greenhouse gas emission?

• In 2019, which is taken as a base year, Mumbai’s GHG emissions were 23.42 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission, which is 1.8 tonnes CO2e per person.
• Out of which, 16.9 million tonnes or 72 per cent is from the energy sector, followed by 4.56 million tonnes of CO2 e or 20 per cent from the transportation sector.
• The city’s waste sector contributes to a total of eight per cent of the total emissions.
• Most of the city’s emissions come from energy use in residential buildings followed by commercial buildings and transport.
• Electricity consumption contributes significantly to total emissions (64.3%), due to the city’s predominantly coal-based grid.

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