MMR to get Climate Action Plan

When the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) was released, experts said it is not enough to simply have a climate plan for Mumbai city and suburbs alone, because pollution and climate do not respect administrative boundaries.

Now, seven months later, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is preparing a similar plan for the entire MMR. The aim is to assess the carrying capacity of the region which is poised for rapid development with mega projects such as the MTHL, the international airport, various Metro lines, the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, the Bullet Train, etc on the anvil.

The MMRDA will be working with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to draft the MMR Climate Action Plan. The authority will then incorporate the study’s findings while planning various development projects as the growth has to sustainable. In a way, the MMR-CAP will be the sustainable planning document to guide the expansion of the MMR. 

Unlike the MCAP, which estimated the total carbon footprint of activities in two districts (Mumbai city and suburbs) measuring around 480 sq km, the MMR-CAP will measure the total ecological burden from various activities across an area of 6,328 sq km, consisting of eight other municipal corporations including Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi- Nizampur, Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayandar and Panvel, in addition to several municipal councils and over 1,000 villages in Thane, Raigad and Palghar.

The MMR-CAP will not have a ‘net zero’ target on the lines of the MCAP, which ambitiously aims to make Mumbai a carbon neutral city by 2050, twenty years ahead of India’s nationally determined target. 

The MCAP marked the first-ever stock-taking of Mumbai’s emissions by a government body and estimated the city’s total emissions in 2019 to be 34.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2Eq) greenhouse gases. A staggering 71% of this load can be attributed to the energy sector, followed by transportation which contributed 24%. The remaining 5% was attributed to the waste sector.

However, as the MCAP itself reveals, a truly net zero carbon balance for the city is virtually impossible within this time frame.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/MAHAUDD

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MAHA_UDD

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maha_udd/

Blog: https://mahaudd.blogspot.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9-Tq8QTPQ4h8IyXp2wbvw

LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/2bpdv9sv

Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/5yrth66x