The much anticipated Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) in the process of completion by the World Resources Institute (India), will be displayed at the upcoming 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in Glasgow in November.
“The final plan will be complete by the end of this year,” a spokesperson of WRI said during an online webinar held on Monday.
WRI (India) under the banner of ‘Connect Karo’ organized an online webinar through which the first public address on MCAP by state environment and climate change minister Aaditya Thackeray was given.
This was the first statement by the minister after consultation hosted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) which was concluded on September 9, reported the HT Times.
In this Webinar, the Environment Minister delivered the keynote address under the title ‘Towards a Climate Resilient Mumbai’.
“We speak about the future is clean, green, and electric, but there is no future unless we act on developing climate mitigation and adaption plans today. With MCAP, we are looking at an ambitious plan to restructure the city on the basis of ‘ease of living’.
At a national level, there is a lot of talk about ease of doing business, where laws that are now redundant are being done away with, but in Maharashtra, we are giving equal emphasis to ease of living also,” Thackeray said.
Moreover, he also foregrounded the efforts of the Mumbai government in protecting the Aarey forests, which cover an area of 9,800 hectares filled with mangroves. Aarey forests have been given the status of reserve forests after the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government came to power, noted the HT Times.
“I don’t think any other state government would have the audacity to declare 800 acres of forest in the middle of an extremely urbanized city,” Thackeray added.
Furthermore, the minister also talked about the Maharashtra cabinet which has been formed earlier this month for the proposed State Council for Climate Change. It will conduct weekly meetings now to set and review climate action targets in the state.
Thackeray further said, “The real challenge is in redefining urbanization by reimagining what constitutes development. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray believes that development is essential, but we cannot do it at the cost of our forests. That would be counterproductive.”
CNBC TV18 reported on September 6, that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been trying to incorporate its citizens in preparing the upcoming climate action plan for the financial capital. The BMC announced that it would be hosting webinars over 4 wide topics for discussion with all relevant stakeholders.
Hence, they have requested the public and experts to pre-register and participate in the upcoming seminars, held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Register and participate in the Mumbai Environment Action Plan Webinar. Send your suggestions, objections & recommendations regarding Climate Change on portal http://mcap.mcgm.gov.in,” tweeted the corporation.
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