Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday released Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) 2022 which aims to have a rise in green spaces, monitoring the enhanced air quality, flood-sustaining infrastructure and carbon neutrality by 2050 which was decided in COP26 in Glasgow.
There are numerous construction activities happening in the financial city, with Air Quality India (AQI) becoming poor many times. To control this, the MCAP would keep a close check on construction sites. The plan believes “concentrations of these air pollutants in the city are extremely localised”.
It is said to be India’s first climate action plan with goals set as per the time period. The 240-page plan describes a roadmap for sustainable measures to be taken up as the Mumbai civic body is directed to put it into effect by constituting a carbon cell by amending it every five years, accordingly, including chief planner and scientist.
Public participation across the ecosystem is key in helping us implement the 'action' in the Mumbai Climate Action Plan. pic.twitter.com/M00TJ3lG6C
— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) February 25, 2022
“Till 2050, the forecast is that 80 percent of Nariman Point in South Mumbai will be underwater if no concrete action is taken. Therefore, this plan comes at a crucial time,” said CM Thackeray.
The MCAP lays emphasis on six sectors, namely Sustainable Waste Management, Energy and Buildings, Air Quality, Sustainable Mobility, Urban Green and Biodiversity, Water Resource Management, and Urban Flooding.
It comprises different stakeholders, monitoring measures, and sources for finance.
Considering the menace of urban flooding and to mitigate its impact, it has included an eight-year goal to combine past and future climate risks, trends, estimations in planning for and attaining climate-proofing of buildings (public & private) in the city.
The World Resources Institute (WRI) India study states that Mumbai is confronted with two key issues: heavy rain occurrences leading to often flooding situations and average increase in temperature. There has been a rise of 0.25 degrees Celsius each decade for the city over the past 47 years.
India's financial capital Mumbai has taken a lead in climate action planning as it aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. https://t.co/AhHGopNkwv
— BloombergQuint (@bloombergquint) March 14, 2022
The plan sets for a 30% reduction in emissions by 2030, a 44% decrease by 2040. While speaking about its timely significance,Cabinet Minister for Environment, Tourism and Protocol Aaditya Thackeray mentioned, “Various recent extreme weather disasters in Maharashtra, such as Cyclone Tauktae, urban floods, and untimely rains, have demonstrated the importance of implementing localised mitigation and resilience techniques. Even today, in March, we are already seeing temperatures nearing 40 degrees celsius.”
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner IS Chahal, the civic body will not create any delay in implementation of the plan as infrastructure projects worth more than Rs 40,000 crore are in continuation to make Mumbai climate-resilient.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has proclaimed a yellow alert indicating a warning of a heatwave in regions like Thane, north Konkan, Mumbai and Raigad for the upcoming two days.
