Mumbai’s natural carbon sinks inadequate to offset greenhouse emissions

The city’s mangroves, wetlands and urban greenery outside of protected areas forest are estimated to have a combined carbon sequestration potential of about 64,000 metric tonnes (MT) per year, according to data revealed during the fifth round of public consultations for the civic body’s upcoming climate action plan (CAP) for Mumbai. The public consultation, which dealt with the topic of urban greening & biodiversity, was hosted by the World Resources Institute (India).

This is, however, only a fraction of the city’s annual carbon footprint. The annual carbon footprint for 2019 was estimated to be 34.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2Eq) emissions, as per a greenhouse gas inventory prepared by WRI (India) last month.