Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation
At a Glance
Industry
Government/Public Administration
Project Types
Financial Evaluation and Planning, Goals/Targets, Sustainability and Energy Management Strategy
Year
2022
Location
Mumbai, Maharashtra
Summary
Sharayu Shejale conducted a climate budget assessment (CBA) for BMC’s FY 2022-23 budget to develop a climate budgeting framework for the city.
Goals
Mumbai has launched its first Climate Action Plan (CAP) and committed to becoming net zero by 2050. As a next step, there is a need to operationalize the CAP and create implementation systems that integrate climate action into BMC's daily tasks as well as its long-term vision. Sharayu contributed to this end by carrying out a CBA to understand what part of BMC's existing budget impacts or is impacted by climate change and thus fill gaps in budgetary allocation for climate relevant and climate sensitive departments and sectors.
Solutions
Shejale arrived at the following solutions after her assessment:
- Creation of a CBA Framework: This framework can be used to check the budgetary allocation of climate relevant activities for each department, as well the allocation to each of the sectors in the MCAP. Then, the relevance and sensitivity analysis map the direct and indirect impact of the action, and whether or not climate proofing or climate benefit retention action is required.
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Integrating climate budgeting into the BMC’s budget process: Climate budgeting should be an ex-ante rather than an ex-post exercise. When account heads of all departments send in their initial budget request to the finance team in October for the next financial year, a column delineating whether or not a proposed action is climate relevant, along with an MCAP action track mapping should also be included. Guidance on climate budget would be useful to include in BMC’s budgetary guidance which is shared with departments before they prepare their departmental budget for the following year. Capacity building workshops/exercise for departments can be conducted to undertake CBA.
Potential Impact
CBA helped understand the current budgetary allocation to climate-relevant activities in the city. Currently, the percentage budgetary allocation for climate relevant activities is roughly 16% of the total BMC budget. This percentage should be steadily increased in the subsequent budget cycles, and BMC can consider setting a target of at least 20% for the next financial year. Urban flooding and Water Resource Management sector in the MCAP has the most budgetary allocation, and sectors such as Urban Greening and Biodiversity, Sustainable Waste Management, need immediate prioritization and budgetary allocation.
Integration of climate budgeting into the BMC’s annual budgeting process would encourage departments to integrate climate action into their daily functioning as well as long term vision. From a reporting standpoint, this can become a governance tool, enabling the city to prioritize climate action and lay the groundwork for future climate change and looking at climate resilience, climate proofing and climate action in a holistic manner.