Irresponsibility, inaction and an indifferent establishment

Meaningful climate-related action calls for recognising Mumbai’s ecology and making that the basis of all development plans. 

Make it make sense. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently proposed slashing mangroves in the CRZ-1 protected area across 8.2 acres in Bhandup. This, it says, has to be done to make way for a cloverleaf interchange for the Rs 14,000 Goregaon-Mulund Link Road. The proposal comes on the heels of the BMC’s obstinacy to proceed with the cutting of at least 45,675 mangroves on the western side of the city for the Versova-Bhayander stretch of the coastal road.

Not far from the site of the intended slashing in Bhandup, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will cut down 3,754 mangroves, across nearly 30 acres, in the buffer zone of the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary for the Thane Coastal Road-2 project. This is a Ramsar site, which means a protected wetland of international importance. Helpfully, the MMRDA has even listed how the construction will impact the ecologically sensitive area. In all three cases, flooding is likely to increase.

Yet come February, and these very agencies are likely to scaffold the second edition of the Mumbai Climate Week, for which invitations to register have already begun landing in inboxes. The first edition, this February, had the Government of Maharashtra, the BMC, and the MMRDA among its lead partners in a long and impressive list of 129 partners and sponsors. And on the stage, at the glittering private convention centre in Bandra Kurla Complex, the institutions tasked with protecting the city in every way affirmed their commitment to the task and detailed their role in making Mumbai climate-resilient, including keeping it flood-free.

How, after slashing thousands of mangroves that act as a natural flood barrier, they see Mumbai being climate-resilient in any way is a mystery. So, make it make sense.

The only way to see this dichotomy is to make a distinction between a spectacle and a meaningful action. The venerated Oxford Dictionary defines ‘spectacle’ as a specially prepared or arranged display of a public nature that forms an impressive or interesting show or an unusual and surprising sight that attracts a lot of attention. Merriam-Webster, in fewer words, describes the noun as something exhibited to view as unusual, notable, or entertaining, especially an eye-catching or dramatic display. When spectacle replaces meaningful and fundamental action, it can obviously have real and disastrous consequences.

The chasm between spectacle and meaningful action is seen in a slew of international events related to climate change. The United Nations-backed formal Conference of Parties, set up in 1992, and the less formal Climate Week launched in New York City in 2009, as a parallel event alongside the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), are two examples. Meant to make the Earth a more environmentally sustainable and just place, they have morphed into grand annual spectacles; the past few COPs have even been hosted by nations deeply invested in and reliant on fossil fuels. 

This year’s edition of Climate Week NYC, in late September, saw 1,500 events with 182 speakers and an estimated audience (including digital participation) of more than 120,000, with its media reach at an unprecedented 20.8 billion. It was apparently the inspiration behind the Mumbai Climate Week helmed by Project Mumbai. The first edition focused on the themes of energy transition and finance, food systems, and urban resilience, and saw more than 2,000 delegates and 500 speakers from 30 countries convening for three days.

The Government of Maharashtra had signed 23 Memorandums of Understanding (MoU), 30 cities in Maharashtra were slated to get their own heat action plans, and over 1,000 urban climate projects across 44 cities in India were announced. These are not unimportant in themselves; there is some gain to be counted by getting decision-makers, policy mavens, and community groups together in one place to deliberate on an issue. Conversations happen both on and off panels, ideas are shared, networks are expanded and strengthened, and avenues are explored for future collaborations.

But a few of those who attended remarked that, let alone action or promises, even conversations were absent around some themes, such as just transition, urban waste, and so on. The next edition may well fill the gaps and make the event more robust and representative. However, the key question remains: all said, how can the state government, the MMRDA, and the BMC be the lead partners of the Mumbai Climate Week while they continue to disregard fundamental ecology when planning and executing projects? It does not make sense.

Last year, while the BMC and the state government were preparing to pour themselves into the Mumbai Climate Week, they were also finalising the Draft Master Plan for the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which would see commercial development and construction across nearly 59 square kilometres of the protected forest. The open expanse of the Mahalaxmi Race Course has ‘development’ plans that should worry every Mumbaikar. Thousands of trees have been cut down in Aarey over the years in the name of ‘development’, and more may be axed as the BMC gives the go-ahead to various projects. 

Meaningful climate-related action calls for recognising Mumbai’s ecology and making that the basis of all development plans. Instead, the agencies merrily ignore the need to secure the coastal city from flooding against dire projections of a rise in sea level and, without so much as a blink, support the Mumbai Climate Week as lead partners and make assurances about climate action.

Jamborees and galas like the Climate Week are spectacles, perhaps necessary for some to demonstrate their climate awareness, networking, and heft. 

The truth is that meaningful action happens after, or in spite of, such convenings. And the people and organisations in the trenches carrying out the action are often not a part of them. As the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, remarked at the Climate Week NYC: “There’s no avoiding the scale of our responsibility or the cost of inaction.” Spectacles cannot replace action—ecologically-grounded action.