In a first, BMC announces climate budget, expected by year-end

Mumbai: While announcing the annual Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) budget for the financial year 2024 -25 on Friday, Iqbal S Chahal, municipal commissioner, has announced a green budget book, also called a climate budget, which will be released by the end of the year.

This step came out after Mumbai’s inclusion in the C40 cities network, which takes urgent action to confront the climate crisis, in December 2020. Chahal, who attended the C40 Mayors Summit in Buenos Aires, said it was decided during the summit that the city will be helped in the making of the climate budget by the Oslo Municipal Corporation, which has been releasing a climate budget alongside its financial one since 2017.

This will not be a budget with monetary allocations, explained Minesh Pimple, deputy municipal commissioner (DCM) in charge of the environment. As the annual budget does with capital, the climate budget deals with CO2 tracking emissions, offsets, expected emissions, and reduction and plans to get to zero, encompassing every department of the BMC.

The DMC said the corporation had attempted to track the carbon emissions in the financial year 2022-23 but started too late in the year. The city will be the first Indian city with such a document. Through it, it hopes to reduce emissions and enhance climate resilience, incorporating initiatives of city-wide gardens, implementing the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) at the ward level, and advancing projects like Renewable Hybrid Energy and the Waste to Energy plant.

“This is a welcome step,” said Bhagwan Keshbat, founder, Waatavaran Foundation. “Looking at all the projects in the city through a climate lens is important so that climate adaptation and mitigation strategies can be included in all spheres. But the corporation also needs to direct funds toward increasing and encouraging climate-resilient practices. More details are awaited.”

Apart from the announcement of the climate budget, the annual budget has earmarked ₹25 crore for air pollution prevention and ₹80 crore for the washing of 700km of roads and footpaths daily. It has also planned to plant 5 lakh bamboo plants. These are, but short-term measures said Keshbat, and more focus is needed on reducing emissions at source.