Mumbai plans for net-zero 20 years before the rest of India

ON MARCH 13TH, as commuters stream ed out of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, a gothic revival masterpiece in Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, they were confronted with temperatures approaching 40°C, nearly 7°C above normal for the time of year. The city is in the midst of a debilitating heatwave, its 13th in the past five decades, nearly half of which occurred in the past 15 years. Mumbai’s average temperature has increased by over 1°C in that period (see chart).

Had those commuters crossed the street from the station and entered the city’s (equally grand) municipal headquarters that day, they might have found cause for optimism. That afternoon bigwigs from the municipality and the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, had gathered to unveil a “climate action plan”. The city aims to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, two decades earlier than the target set by the national government.