Raising the climate-aligned spending to over ₹16,000 crore for the financial year 2025–26. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) released its second consecutive Climate Budget Report on World Environment Day, aligning its fiscal strategy with the pressing realities of climate change and urban vulnerability.
This year marks a critical evolution of the budget with the inclusion of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking—an agency pivotal to the city’s public mobility system. Together, the BMC and BEST have allocated a total of ₹17,066.12 crore in capital expenditure and ₹3,268.97 crore in revenue expenditure exclusively for climate-aligned projects. The civic body, responsible for managing India’s financial capital, had earlier released a comprehensive capital budget of ₹43,162.23 crore for FY 2025–26. Of this, ₹16,321.33 crore—or 37.81 percent—has now been earmarked for climate-responsive initiatives. This marks a dramatic rise from the previous fiscal year, where ₹10,224.24 crore—or 32.18 percent of the ₹31,774.59 crore capital outlay—was allocated for climate actions.
This upward trend in green financing highlights a strategic pivot towards climate-resilient urban governance. Officials stated that this year’s climate-focused allocations were informed not just by the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP), but also by the growing incidence of climate-induced disruptions—ranging from plastic-clogged drains to erratic monsoon flooding. Within the broader ₹74,427 crore municipal budget declared in February 2025, the climate component represents a significant recalibration of city priorities. Approximately 58 percent of the total budget was marked for capital works, of which a notable 37.81 percent aligns with sustainable development goals.
Parallelly, the BEST undertaking has stepped up its role in the city’s green transformation. For FY 2025–26, the public transport agency has allocated ₹744.79 crore—about 40 percent of its ₹1,849.24 crore capital works budget—for climate-relevant activities. On the revenue front, 43.25 percent of its ₹7,544.39 crore allocation, amounting to ₹3,263.35 crore, is now directed towards clean energy, low-emission operations, and technological upgrades to support sustainable transport infrastructure. Some of the flagship climate projects included in this budget cycle are biomethanation plants to manage organic waste, solar installations at major civic hospitals, ward-level dry waste sheds to decentralise recycling, PNG-based crematoriums to reduce emission intensity, and modernisation of the Mahalaxmi refuse transfer station to handle waste more efficiently.
These are supported by broader thematic areas of investment: energy efficiency in buildings, integrated low-carbon transport systems, sustainable waste management, enhancement of urban biodiversity, air quality improvements, flood mitigation infrastructure, and water conservation. Officials highlighted the continued threat of plastic pollution as a major civic concern. “Drains cleaned in advance of the monsoon are showing more plastic bags than silt,” one senior civic official noted. While enforcement measures against single-use plastics are ongoing, authorities stressed the importance of citizen self-regulation in reducing plastic usage across households and businesses.
Performance metrics for the previous fiscal year show that the civic body achieved 86.26 percent financial progress in implementing its Climate Budget for FY 2024–25. An additional 79.96 percent execution rate was recorded for projects incorporating elements of the MCAP. In total, physical progress was logged across 739 budgeted climate-linked activities. In FY 2024–25, the civic body had separately earmarked ₹2,163.8 crore—or 6.81 percent of its capital spend—for projects directly implementing MCAP recommendations. This included rainwater harvesting, decentralised sewage treatment, and resilient infrastructure to counter urban heat and flooding.
Urban planning experts have welcomed the scale of investment but have called for deeper institutional reforms to accelerate implementation. “The integration of BEST into the Climate Budget is a commendable move, but actual impact will hinge on how quickly projects move from allocation to execution,” noted a sustainable cities consultant familiar with the budget framework. By making climate resilience a central axis of civic spending, the BMC has signalled that environmental action is no longer an auxiliary concern but a foundational element of urban management. With Mumbai’s coastal vulnerability, high population density, and complex waste and transport systems, the need for future-proof infrastructure has become increasingly urgent.
While the current climate budget reflects a bold financial vision, officials acknowledge that meaningful transformation will require more than just numbers—it needs policy coherence, public participation, and consistent follow-through. As the BMC positions itself at the forefront of municipal climate action in India, the scale and sincerity of its 2025–26 Climate Budget could serve as a benchmark for other Indian cities navigating the twin challenges of urban growth and environmental degradation. Whether this momentum translates into lasting on-ground change, however, will be closely watched in the months ahead.
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