Climate change mitigation needs funding

At the fourth edition of the IE Thinc: CITIES series, presented by The Indian Express with Omidyar Network India and moderated by Amitabh Sinha, Editor (Climate and Science), panellists discussed how municipal bodies can leverage capital markets to solve climate-related problems

- Abhay Kantak, Senior Director (Urban), Crisil Risk & Infra Solutions Limited; Shekhar Singh, Commissioner, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation; Arnab Choudhury, EVP and Group Head of Debt Capital Markets at SBI Caps; Santosh Tiwari, Chief Accountant, Vadodara Municipal Corporation; Shilpa Kumar, Partner, Omidyar Network, India

Abhay Kantak: Urban development, as per the Constitution, is a state subject and every state government has a structure to allow. So, all municipal corporations in the country are not the same. In Maharashtra and Gujarat, municipal corporations provide all kinds of services – water, waste water and solid waste management, hospitals and education. They also have a discretionary service called public transport. So some cities also provide the city bus services.

This is not true for all corporations. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike just provides solid waste management, electricity and roads. How do you manage and dispose of your waste to address climate change?

Cities like Mumbai provide bus services, so converting them to electric vehicles is a challenge. One of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases are buildings. How do you create Development Control Regulations codes that will promote green buildings, reduce the impact of construction and monitor energy consumption and, by extension, the greenhouse effect?

Ideally, municipal revenues should be 3-4% of the country's GDP, but are currently at 0.9-1%. Moving to 2% is achievable. Property tax, currently at 0.15% of GDP, should be around 1%. Property tax also reflects the vibrancy of a city's administration. Profession tax, capped at ₹2,400 since the 1980s, should increase, as suggested by the 14th Finance Commission. Cities also need consumption-linked taxes like octroi, which was replaced by inadequate compensation, hurting municipal income.

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