(← selected work) (research question)

what does a city have to see about itself before it can promise net zero?

A city audited ward by ward, then given a pathway to net zero by 2047.

Surat's Net-Zero Climate Resilient City Action Plan is the most ambitious of the three Gujarat plans: the same ward-level audit, the same greenhouse-gas inventory, but a pathway that reaches net zero in 2047, twenty-three years ahead of the national target. Published by the Surat Municipal Corporation with C40 Cities and ICLEI South Asia. I co-authored the sector strategies and designed the book.

(role): co-author · sector strategies · book design
(period): 2024–2025
(context): surat · c40 cities · iclei south asia
(status): published · june 2025

fig.01The net-zero pathway. Annual emissions 2023 to 2047, business-as-usual on the left, each mitigation action peeled away by sector until the remaining line meets the target trajectory: 74.3% below BAU in 2047.

(00) the city

One municipality, 2023–24

Surat is India's textile and diamond city and one of its fastest-growing: eight million people in the municipal limits, a river that floods, a coast at its back. This plan starts, as the Ahmedabad and Vadodara plans did, from one municipality in one year: Surat, 2023–24, by zone and by ward, in the units the corporation uses.

fig.02Demography. The city by zone and ward, and the population the plan is written for.

fig.03Land use. The development plan the city already has, and the region the climate plan sits inside.

fig.04Where it breaks. The stormwater gaps, drawn: silted creeks, drains blocked by waste, the wards that flood, and the projects budgeted to fix them.

(01) the atlas

The city, drawn one layer at a time

Before the plan proposes anything, it draws. Twenty-two maps at ward level, in three passes. First the infrastructure as it stands: wastewater, drainage, waste, transport, green cover, parks, fire cover, health. Then the hazards: air, the slums and schools inside the heat, the flood-prone areas and the disease complaints that follow them. Then the cross: heat laid over water supply, flood over wastewater, flood over waste, flood over the roads and the emergency services that depend on them, and, last, one composite of every hazard against every fragile system.

They are one drawing, not twenty-two. The zone and ward boundaries, the Tapi, the railway and the ring of highways sit in the same place on every sheet, so the atlas belongs on one stage rather than in a grid: step through it and what moves is the question, not the city.

Wastewater network and infrastructure. Sewage treatment plants, pumping stations and the sewer network. — fig.26Wards impacted by climate hazards and fragile urban systems. Every hazard laid over every fragile system: the wards the plan has to answer for first.

Flood area assessment. Waterlogging points against the drainage network. — fig.26Wards impacted by climate hazards and fragile urban systems. Every hazard laid over every fragile system: the wards the plan has to answer for first.

(the systems)

(what it can reach)

(the hazards)

(where the two meet)

(the composite)

26every hazard at once

(02) the inventory

A number the city can be held to

The maps say where; the inventory says how much. Prepared to the Global Protocol for Community-Scale emissions at the BASIC level, with a five-year series behind it, the sum is a number the city can be held to: 10.43 million tonnes of CO₂e in 2023–24, 1.32 tonnes per person, with manufacturing at 40%, transport 26%, homes 20%. Energy use is the inverse: transport first, at 46%.

Five years of the same accounting give the trend: 26.9% up, 6.7% a year. That is the business-as-usual line the rest of the plan argues against.

fig.27The inventory. Energy use and emissions by sector and by source, 2023–24: 10.43 million tCO₂e, manufacturing first, transport second.

Inventory detail. Energy use and emissions by sector, 2019–20 to 2023–24. — fig.28–33Sector by sector. Energy use and emissions, 2019–20 to 2023–24: residential, commercial, industry, transport, waste, municipal operations.

10.43 Mt

(CO₂e · 2023–24)

82 M GJ

(energy use)

1.32 t

(CO₂e per person)

40%

(from manufacturing and construction)

Surat Net-Zero CRCAP, GHG emissions inventory 2023–24 · GPC BASIC · five-year series 2019–20 to 2023–24

(03) the pathway

Three lines to 2047

Surat chose the harder target. Where the national commitment is net zero by 2070, the city's pathway is drawn to 2047, India's centenary year. Three lines: business as usual, rising to 36.8 million tonnes; the progressive scenario, every existing scheme pushed as far as it goes; and the net-zero pathway, which extends each action until the remaining line meets the target: 46.3% below BAU in 2030, 54.8% in 2035, 74.3% in 2047.

Buildings do most of the work again: 75% of fans and 90% of lighting efficient, half the energy demand from renewables, 80% of new buildings green by 2047. Transport shifts 30% of private trips to walking, cycling and public transport, and electrifies the bus fleet.

fig.34The pathway, whole. Mitigation potential of every action in the net-zero pathway, 2023–2047, and the table beside it: 46.3% below BAU in 2030, 54.8% in 2035, 74.3% in 2047.

fig.35The progressive action scenario. Every scheme already on the books, pushed as far as it goes.

fig.36What remains. The residual emissions in 2047 and the barriers between the pathway and zero.

(04) strategies

Nine sectors, one goal each

Nine sectors this time (health joins the eight), each with one goal, a handful of strategies, and targets by decade. My part of the book begins here: the strategies were drawn before they were tabulated, so that a department head could see the piece of city each one changes, and the whole set fits on one sheet.

fig.37The strategy sheet. Nine sectors across the page: built environment and energy, transport, water, wastewater, stormwater, solid waste, greening, health, air.

Executive summary. The sector goals, drawn: built environment, transport, water. — fig.38–45The sector goals, drawn, and the targets by decade behind them.

Executive summary. Wastewater, stormwater, solid waste. — fig.38–45The sector goals, drawn, and the targets by decade behind them.

(05) actions

Sheets a department can pick up

The action sheets are the part of the plan that gets picked up. Each sector opens with its 2023–24 baseline and the gaps the audit found; each action follows with its target, the entity that implements it, the financing mode, the indicative cost and timeline, and a resilience score. A sheet is what a department takes to a budget meeting.

fig.46An action sheet. Built environment: adaptation strategies with their targets, implementing entities, financing modes, indicative costs and resilience impact.

Built environment and energy. The sector sheet: 2023–24 baseline, key statistics, opportunities and gaps. — fig.47–55One sheet per sector. The 2023–24 baseline, key statistics, and the opportunities and gaps the actions answer.

Transport. Sector sheet. — fig.47–55One sheet per sector. The 2023–24 baseline, key statistics, and the opportunities and gaps the actions answer.

(outcome)

Net-Zero Climate Resilient City Action Plan, Surat. June 2025. Published by the Surat Municipal Corporation with C40 Cities and ICLEI South Asia. The third Gujarat plan after Ahmedabad and Vadodara, and the first to commit to net zero by 2047.

(what I'd do next)

Put the three cities on one instrument, the same sectors, the same baseline year, the same chart, so that a reader can see which city is furthest from its line and why.

(next) Ahmedabad Climate Action Plan · the same instrument, first city →