St. Michael Church popular as the Mahim Church, one of the oldest places of worship in Mumbai, is on its way to become carbon neutral and the first church in India to do so.
Carbon neutrality involves calculating the church’s carbon footprint and finding ways to make this footprint zero to reduce global warming.
Initiated in 2018, St Michaels Church had incorporated six environmental initiatives in its activities — solar panels, solar water heaters, energy efficient lights and fans, composting of organic waste, biogas from flower waste, and greening the church area.
The Mahim church’s decision to become carbon neutral is significant in view of the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) to achieve neutrality by 2050—twenty years ahead of India. MCAP has the support of the Maharashtra government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and was released in March 2022.
The church’s carbon footprint for 2021 was calculated at 44 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. “The figure is a small amount by world standards, but our effort to reduce this to zero is a big step,” noted Fr. Lancy Pinto, the Parish Priest of St. Michael church.
The calculation was done by Dr Emmanuel D’Silva, an environmental scientist, formerly with the World Bank and independently verified by Zenith Energy Services of Hyderabad, which specializes in climate services.
“While electric power consumption contributed to 86 percent of the emissions, transport footprint was just 11 percent because most of the church employees lived nearby and walked to work,”explained Dr D’Silva.
The church had installed solar panels in 2019 which reduced electricity use substantially. “Going solar is one of the best decisions one can make because Mumbai has one of the highest electricity tariffs in the country,” claims Dr. D’Silva who was an adviser for the installation at the church and also at his housing society in Mahim.
“The construction of 20 kilowatt-hour solar grid has cut down the church electricity bill substantially and reduced the carbon foot print by 15 tonnes per year,” claims Oswald Rodrigues, supervisor of Green Project at the St Michael Church.
The church plans to expand its solar capacity by another 10 or 20 kilowatts per hour to achieve net zero emissions. The church and the attached school have a large terrace for installation of solar panels.
The church plans to invest in emission-reducing community projects, such as planting trees, supporting conservation agriculture and biogas projects. Additionally, several corporates have announced their own plans. Tata Consultancy Services and Indian Railways hope to become carbon neutral by 2030 and Reliance by 2035. Many others are expected to jump on the bandwagon to avert the climate change crisis.
“Maharashtra has recorded a sevenfold increase in drought events and a sixfold rise in the frequency of extreme floods events over the last 50 years. St Michael Church efforts are small contribution to the state’s ambitious plan will help reduce India’s total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030 and reduce the carbon intensity of the economy to less than 45% by the end of the decade as promised at COP26,” said church parishoner Anthony Gomes.
