Climate Action Plans forget that their cities are people, not buildings and vehicles

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Climate Action Plans (CAPs) are strategic blueprints that outline how cities, states and countries intend to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate-related risks. In principle, CAPs should be participatory, locally informed, and inclusive.

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India currently has 41 cities with climate action plans, spanning metros like Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi to medium and smaller cities like Surat, Kochi, and Siliguri.

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However, the plans exhibit a worrying commonality - most are designed through consultant-led processes, with little organic engagement from municipal communities, elected representatives, or marginalised and vulnerable residents.

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These CAPs also falter on reliability, transparency and access. Many city websites crash, updates are sporadic, and documentation is either overly technical or incomplete. As a result, even basic public access is limited, which undermines the very idea of participatory governance.

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Climate action plans need to have a greater focus on ground-level stakeholder engagement and citizen participation in shaping the principles and specifics of climate planning and policy. However, there can be some general changes made to the approaches to planning, such as transparency in funding, improved public communication, and ward-level decision-making.

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