Mumbai Climate Action Plan

Why in news?

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is drafting a Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) to tackle climate challenges.

Click here to learn about India Cooling Action Plan

What is the MCAP?

• It is a comprehensive roadmap outlining specific activities to reduce emissions and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
• It was drafted with the technical support from World Resources Institute India (WRI India).

What is the need for a climate plan?

Weather events

• WRI study on Mumbai’s vulnerability assessment says Mumbai will face rise in temperature & extreme rain leading to floods.

• Recent IPCC report predicts that Mumbai will face sea rise of 0.1m to 0.3m in next three decades.
• By 2050, Mumbai will see a 25% increase in the intensity of flash floods.
• This will affect 2-3 million people living within 1 km from the coastline.
• The plan also comes as part of the C40 compliance process, as Mumbai joined C40 Cities group in December 2020.

C40 is a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. There are 97 cities across the world connected in C40 Cities to collaborate and take measures on climate change.

GHG emissions

• Mumbai’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission was 34.3 million tonnes in 2019.
• Of this, 71% came from the energy sector which is mainly based on coal.
• 24% is from transport, and the 5% is from solid waste management.

95% of Mumbai’s electricity is coal-based and needs to be shifted to renewable energy to bring down emissions.

What are the signs of climate change impact in Mumbai so far?

• Steady rise in air temperature over the past 50 years.
• Uneven increase in night time temperatures.
• Faster warming of the winter months compared to the summer.
• The number of extreme caution days is increasing. e.g Mumbai sees 174 caution days and 187 extreme caution days per year.

• Caution days - Temperature is 26-32°C.
• Extreme caution day - Temperature is 32-42°C.
• Temperatures above 35°C can impact human health and productivity.

• Since 2007, a constant rise in temperature mainly due to concretization, lack of green cover and housing density in Mumbai.
• A substantial increase in intense rainfall and storm events in the last 5 years, resulting in frequent water logging and flooding.

What will the MCAP address?

• Reduction of GHG emission by sectors.
• Consumption patterns, for the near term (2030), medium term (2040) and long-term (2050).
• Vulnerability assessment.
• Increasing community resilience capacities in vulnerable neighborhoods.
• Building climate resilient infrastructure.
• Nurturing robust natural systems to better adapt to climate risks.

Source: The Indian Express