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New York City has taken preventative measures to integrate climate targets into the budgeting process, following pent-up frustration over delayed reactions to the ever-unstable climate crisis. Mayor Eric Adams announced the initiative during his executive budget rollout last Wednesday, April 24.
For 15 years, New York City has been directly impacted by the consequences of climate change, city officials said. The city has seen record-breaking heat waves, increased rainfall, rising sea levels, and tidal flooding, often marked by historic events like Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Hurricane Ida in 2021, and the eerie yellow-tinted skies last year caused by air pollution from Canadian wildfires. The crises are linked by their disproportionate impact on “environmental justice areas” in historically vulnerable Black and brown neighborhoods, particularly in Central Brooklyn, Upper Manhattan, Southeast Queens, and the Bronx.
Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) urge “aggressively” reducing emissions and adapting to climate change conditions in their latest reports.
“This is the greatest city on the globe and resiliency is the cornerstone and foundation of who we are,” said Adams at the executive budget press conference last week.
The city’s $111.6 billion executive budget for Fiscal Year (FY25) 2025 does a combination of good and controversial things. It recommited $514 million to Department of Education (DOE) programs, like pre-K and 3-K, that previously faced cuts and were supported with “temporary stimulus money,” said the city. It also restored $22.6 million for cultural institutions—including museums, performing arts centers, historical societies, zoos, and botanical gardens—which were also facing budget cuts. Public libraries were still left out.
For public safety, the budget earmarks $62.4 million to beef up the police force on city streets and subways, as well as two more police academy classes this year. The city estimates there will be a total of 35,000 additional uniformed officers in the coming years. Adams also reduced asylum seeker costs by $586 million from last year’s and this year’s budget. He attributed these “savings” to the 30- and 60-day shelter notices and reduced per diem household costs, which he categorized as “tough choices” to make.
New York City is aiming to be among the global cities to establish a climate budgeting office, following places like Oslo, London, and Mumbai. The Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Jacques Jiha spearheaded the Environmental Sustainability and Resiliency Task Force within that office to lead the development and implementation of climate budgeting.
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“We are the nexus of everything taking place in city government so from my perspective it was appropriate for it to be at OMB because we can see and track all the investments,” Jiha said in a budget session, “and we can make sure that the investments the city makes has the appropriate impact on the environment.”
The plan is to align capital and budget decisions with the overall goal of reaching net-zero gas emissions by 2050, and creating resiliency plans that accommodate extreme heat and flooding.
Those directives entail requiring climate-specific information with new funding requests and capital projects as well as prioritizing sustainability projects: electrification in buildings and vehicles, renewed roof coatings to cut indoor temperatures, stormwater management and upgraded catch basins, expand tree canopies, renewable diesel for ferries, more staff to carry out Local Law 97 (LL97) building efficiency compliance, a study of Rikers Island energy infrastructure, an offshore wind hub at South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, and a climate innovation hub at Brooklyn Army Terminal.
So far the city’s assessment concluded that out of the $97.7 billion in capital projects funding, $65.7 billion potentially impacted net-zero emissions goals, with 24% of that already supporting green infrastructure and 8.4% supporting gas powered equipment.
According to the city, “a significant portion of the city’s affordable housing stock and more than one million small and mid-sized buildings” are especially vulnerable to energy inefficiencies because they usually use natural gas for heat and hot water, which is expected to continue to burn because many of those buildings don’t have to comply with LL97 emissions targets. There’s also the issue of the state running behind on building large-scale renewable energy projects.
Though disappointed with other elements of the city budget, environmentalist groups like New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV) and Climate Works for All were tentatively excited about the climate budgeting process.
“While the release of the new Climate Budgeting publication is welcome news, when it comes to on-the-ground policy, this budget takes us in the wrong direction,” said NYLCV in a statement. They criticized the current executive budget for cuts to the Department of Parks and Recreation and the city’s curbside composting program.
Faiza Azam, a Climate Works for All spokesperson, found the announcement encouraging. Azam said the organization is adamant about the need to address climate impacts by restoring cuts to and fully funding the Department of Citywide and Administrative Services’ energy resilience projects, dedicating $600 million for green schools and funding for more LL97 staff to decarbonize buildings.
“It’s not enough to restore cuts to education without investing in green and healthy public schools, so our students, teachers, and school staff can breathe clean air,” Azam said in a statement. “And it’s not enough to claim a brighter future where every child is able to thrive when Black and Brown youth continue to weather the worst effects of the climate crisis and remain most vulnerable to record-breaking storms, heat, and wildfire smoke.”
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
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