New York City Mayor's Office of Sustainability
At a Glance
Industry
Government/Public Administration
Project Type
Sustainability and Energy Management Strategy
Year
2017
Location
New York, NY
Annual CO2 Reductions:
10,000,000 metric tons
Summary
Ryan Moya worked with NYC’s Mayor’s Office of Sustainability to create the first-ever city plan for meeting the climate goals outlined in the Paris Agreement.
Goals
New York City has committed to achieve 80% GHG emissions reductions by 2050, but with the decision to withdrawal the U.S. from the Paris Accord, the city was preparing to make additional plans. Taking action, Mayor de Blasio signed Executive 26 (EO26), which committed NYC to align its climate strategies with the goals outlined in the Paris agreement. In fulfillment of EO26, the city would release the first-ever 1.5°C, Paris Agreement-compliant climate action plan for achieving its goals. EDF Climate Corps fellow Ryan Moya was hired by the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability (MOS), in charge of leading the report, to help citywide agencies identify necessary near-term actions.
Solutions
A survey was sent to each NYC agency inquiring progress on existing sustainability initiatives and the priority projects each agency hoped to implement by 2020. Moya and the project team engaged with agencies throughout the city to generate a list of existing 80 x 50 strategies that should see accelerated implementation to meet the EO26’s directives.
Moya also assisted MOS to conduct a multi-criteria assessment to identify potential GHG reductions, feasibility and associated investments, as well as other benefits rooted in the City’s OneNYC report, in line with building an equitable, sustainable and resilient city. Near-term actions were identified that would result in significant GHG reductions over the next 30 years, with the single largest being building energy performance mandates coupled with legislation that requires 14,500 buildings to meet fossil fuel standards by 2030. Other actions included expanding EV car charging station infrastructure and PACE financing. NYC also identified the need to develop a global protocol for cities to attain carbon neutrality.
Potential Impact
With “1.5°: Aligning New York City with the Paris Climate Agreement”, NYC became the first city to publish a 1.5 °C Paris-compliant climate action plan. The buildings energy performance mandate, the single most impactful action in terms of GHG savings potential, is expected to create 17,000 construction-related jobs created by 2030. The total GHG reduction potential of all measurable 2020 actions was 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by 2030.