New York City Climate Justice Agenda

2020 NYC Climate Justice Agenda

A Critical Decade for Climate, Health, and Equity

On Tuesday, April 21st, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance released their latest report, NYC Climate Justice Agenda 2020: A Critical Decade for Climate, Health, and Equity which outlines urgent recommended strategies to enact a Just Transition, including specific timelines and concrete financial and legislative commitments to create healthy and resilient neighborhoods; tackle emissions in an equitable way; support climate adaptation for frontline communities; and generate good, green jobs in the process. The report focuses on three main themes aimed at achieving an intersectional set of environmental and climate justice goals: (1) Reduce Greenhouse Gases and Localized Emissions, (2) Advance a Just Transition Towards an Inclusive, Regenerative Economy and (3) Cultivate Healthy and Resilient Communities.

The NYC Climate Justice Agenda is a research and advocacy campaign to address the need for comprehensive community-based approaches to climate action. Informed by the experiences of our member organizations, NYC-EJA monitors government progress towards meaningfully and equitably addressing climate change, and provides strategic recommendations to dismantle historic environmental burdens for frontline communities in New York City.

In April 2018, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance released, NYC Climate Justice Agenda 2018 – Midway to 2030: Building Resiliency and Equity for a Just Transition, detailing key strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation that should be adopted by the City and State to ensure a Just Transition in New York City. The report focuses on four key areas of government action and policy: 1) Extreme Heat and Community Preparedness; 2) Air Quality; 3) Green Infrastructure Equity; and 4) Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.

In April 2017, NYC-EJA released NYC Climate Justice Agenda –  Climate Justice in a State of Emergency: What New York City Can Do. The report is a pragmatic roadmap with specific policy recommendations for how a progressive city can lead the way on environmental and climate issues while challenging the reactionary policies of the Trump administration. The report analyzed sustainability and resiliency efforts from City government, as laid out in OneNYC: The Plan for a Strong and Just City and New York City’s Roadmap to 80×50, and proposed specific policy recommendations for the following items:  (1) Urban heat island mitigation  (2) Food system resiliency  (3) Renewable energy and energy resiliency  (4) Air quality and low-emission zones  (5) Coastal resiliency  (6) Community engagement. These recommendations are critical to begin to reduce the vulnerabilities of low-income communities and communities of color to climate change impacts. To read NYC-EJA’s 2017 report, NYC Climate Justice Agenda – Climate Justice in a State of Emergency: What New York City Can Do, click here.

In 2016, NYC-EJA released NYC Climate Justice Agenda –  Strengthening the Mayor’s OneNYC Plan. This pioneering report is a critical evaluation of OneNYC: The Plan for a Strong and Just City. The 2016 NYC Climate Justice Agenda reported on New York City’s progress over the inaugural year of OneNYC while providing recommendations on how the City could bolster its commitment to equity through specific policy and programmatic recommendations. To read NYC-EJA’s 2016 report, NYC Climate Justice Agenda: Strengthening the Mayor’s OneNYC Plan, click here.

Green Infrastructure is a key climate adaptation strategy that can increase community resilience to climate change. Our vision of nature-based solutions requires a commitment to equity and justice. NYC-EJA engages in multifaceted advocacy and research strategies to increase green infrastructure in low-income communities of color to mitigate historic environmental burdens, protect against growing climate vulnerabilities, and maximize co-benefits of GI including addressing air quality, extreme heat, stormwater, and coastal protection. Additionally, our Just Nature NYC Partnership advocates for more nature-based solutions, especially trees and the urban forest across New York City, to support climate justice and equity. We believe that these investments must be targeted strategically in frontline neighborhoods to help improve well-being and resilience, especially in the most heat-vulnerable communities. To learn more visit our GAGE Blog.

The negative health outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic closely mirror the racial and socioeconomic disparities that environmental justice communities have faced for decades. Similarly, to climate change, COVID-19 is a threat multiplier. When the two crises intersect, the effects of poor air quality, extreme heat, and severe storms on environmental justice communities will be disastrous.

Download the COVID-19 and Environmental Justice Factsheet here.

NYC-EJA has long championed for NYC to do more to address the dangers of extreme heat caused by a changing climate for low-income communities of color. According to the NYC Heat Vulnerability Index—a metric that identifies neighborhoods with a higher risk for heat-related deaths—the twelve most heat vulnerable communities are predominantly composed of low-income residents of color. NYC-EJA advocates for extreme heat preparedness, to ensure that communities have the knowledge and the resources they need to prepare for extreme heat events.

With the support of the Kresge Foundation’s Climate Resilience and Urban Opportunity Initiative, a national competitive process, NYC-EJA has partnered with its member organization THE POINT CDC to engage local communities in creating a comprehensive climate resiliency agenda that will strengthen both the physical and social resiliency of the South Bronx Significant Maritime and Industrial Area (SMIA). The South Bronx Community Resiliency Agenda (SBCRA) will engage local communities in creating a comprehensive climate resiliency agenda that will strengthen both the physical and social resiliency of the South Bronx Significant Maritime and Industrial Area (SMIA). This project flows, in large part, from the cutting edge Hunts Point Lifelines plan which was awarded funding through the HUD-sponsored Rebuild by Design competition. SBCRA provides a mechanism for sustained community engagement in support of implementing Lifelines and coordinated resiliency plans for the South Bronx SMIA communities. SBCRA envisions connecting greenways along our waterfront neighborhoods; levees to protect both the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center and residential neighborhoods from flooding; clean and renewable energy sources; jobs and business opportunities generated as a result of new investments; and community preparedness for future climate events.

NYC-EJA and our member organizations have been working to promote climate adaptation and resiliency in Hunts Point and other neighborhoods in the South Bronx that are impacted by disproportionate environmental burdens. Of particular relevance for the entire region is the storm surge vulnerability of the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center. This is the largest food market in the U.S. and second largest internationally – feeding over 23 million people throughout the region, while generating $3 billion in revenues and employing over 3,000 workers. As part of these efforts, NYC-EJA introduced the PennDesign/Olin team to Environmental Justice issues affecting Hunts Point, and facilitated a successful collaboration with THE POINT CDC –- who played a key role engaging local stakeholders and reviewing planning proposals throughout the planning/design phase of Hunts Point Lifelines.

Winner of the Rebuild by Design competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Hunts Point Lifelines has successfully created a planning framework to address issues of equity in its approach to reduce neighborhood vulnerability — while working in partnership with South Bronx communities. With the City’s commitment to provide a $25 million leverage to the original $20 million federal investment, the communities that live and work in the South Bronx are taking an important step toward a more sustainable and resilient industrial waterfront.

SBCRA seeks to respond to resiliency needs of other communities within the SMIA, and hold implementation accountable to community priorities established thus far — and throughout a multi-year planning process that will have major impacts on the South Bronx waterfront.

On January 26, 2013, nearly 200 participants representing over 40 community, environmental justice, labor and civic groups from across New York City, New Jersey and Long Island – from the neighborhoods most impacted by Superstorm Sandy, and most vulnerable to future storm surges – convened the Sandy Regional Assembly to strategize how government officials should implement a Sandy rebuilding program. In April 2013, these groups presented their Sandy Regional Assembly Recovery Agenda – the first regional grassroots Sandy rebuilding and resiliency plan.  The Recovery Agenda was a mix of suggested capital projects and policy recommendations.

In July 2013, the Sandy Regional Assembly released our Analysis of Mayor Bloomberg’s SIRR Report, and whether it addressed vulnerable community priorities from the Sandy Regional Recovery Agenda. The Sandy Regional Assembly Recovery Agenda was designed to advance 3 goals:

  1. Integrate regional rebuilding efforts with local resiliency priorities;
  2. Strengthen vulnerable communities & reduce public health threats, and
  3. Expand community-based climate change planning, disaster preparedness & response.

The Sandy Regional Recovery Agenda was shared with Mayor Bloomberg’s Sandy Rebuilding team – called the Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (or SIRR) – as well as with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, other members of the federal Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, the federal Joint Field Office established under the National Disaster Recovery Framework and headed by FEMA, and Governor Cuomo’s office.

Several Assembly recommendations were incorporated into the Mayor’s SIRR Report. To address other missing priorities, the Assembly urged the federal Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding task Force to:

  1. Demonstrate that recovery and resiliency planning efforts integrate community priorities and use transparent and democratic decision-making processes;
  2. Guarantee that NYC Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) integrate regional rebuilding efforts with local resiliency priorities; and
  3. Ensure that future New York City recovery and resiliency planning efforts address the needs of the most vulnerable communities.

The federal Sandy Rebuilding Task Force led by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan released their report in August 2013. The Federal Report – called the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy – included several Sandy Regional Assembly priorities missing from the SIRR, and highlighted the problem of environmental justice and industrial waterfront vulnerability to storm surges (see p. 132 of the Report.)

On the 3rd Anniversary of Sandy, the New York Times invited NYC-EJA to write a short Op Ed.

For more information on similar initiatives, see NYC-EJA’s Waterfront Justice Project & People’s Climate March.

Accomplishments

  • The Just Nature NYC Partnership now released a translated version of “Opportunities For Growth: Nature-Based Jobs in NYC”. You can read the full Spanish version here “Nuevo informe — Oportunidades de crecimiento: Empleos basados en la naturaleza en Nueva York“.

  • The Just Nature NYC partnership released “Opportunities for Growth: Nature-Based Jobs in New York City” highlighting the complexity and variety of nature-based jobs across the city needed to build climate-resilient communities.

  • Thanks to NYC-EJA’s advocacy, the City passed two laws in July 2020 on extreme heat, Local Laws 84and 85 . The first law requires the NYC Department of Health to annually report on neighborhood heat vulnerability and the number of heat-related deaths, as well as an estimation of heat-exacerbated deaths. The second law requires the NYC Office of Emergency Management to develop and submit an annual comprehensive NYC cooling and communication plan.

  • The Just Nature NYC partnership released “How a Healthy and Equitable Urban Forest Can Help Communities Thrive” highlighting why the urban forest is an environmental justice issue.

  • In anticipation of the OneNYC update, NYC-EJA released the NYC Climate Justice Agenda to assess the extent to which the Mayor’s sustainability and resiliency blueprints address environmental and climate justice issues, and the type of progress achieved to date. The Agenda also highlights community-based initiatives and recommendations to address these issues.

  • The City committed to addressing the vulnerability of industrial facilities to climate change impacts through the Open Industrial Uses and Resilient Indust