Development of planning index for evaluating climate change protocols: analysis of Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s Regional Plan 1996–2011

Abstract Conserving resources, harmonizing living standards, and employing energy efficient methods are potential solutions to climate change, which can be positively accomplished through development and planning. However, today, as the first world countries advance towards “positive development”, some third world countries are developing in an “unwanted pattern”. The metropolitan cities of developing countries attract most of the country’s population, consequently becoming the worst sufferers of the situation. They grow faster than their capacity allows, and then due to the lack of strategy, poor governance, and weak policies; face overwhelming pressure on land and natural resources. Documenting this situation using the case of a metropolitan city in India, the present paper aims to identify the problems faced by a metropolitan city in a developing country. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s Regional Plan 1996–2011 was analyzed to determine the response to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Furthermore, a new diagnostic tool, namely the “Climate Change Planning Index”, which can deliver valuable information at a glance, was developed. The paper concludes with a summary of the climate change crisis and the necessity of development in a developing metropolitan city.