Comptroller Lander Unveils NYC Climate Dashboard to Hold City Accountable to Climate Goals

 

NYC faces climate risks including double the heat waves, super storms, and 30-inch sea level rise. Dashboard illustrates maps of floodplain levels, as well as progress toward targets to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and enhance resiliency.

 To kick-off Earth Week, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and the Comptroller’s Chief Climate Officer Louise Yeung unveiled the NYC Climate Dashboard to shine a spotlight on the City’s incremental progress and path forward to meet its goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. The dashboard tracks key metrics on NYC’s energy transition, emissions, pension fund investments, and resiliency infrastructure. As the City’s Chief Accountability Officer, the Comptroller has  identified climate change as one of the greatest risks facing the city. The dashboard aims to help New Yorkers hold the City accountable to its climate goals to mitigate the threats of climate crisis, advance a just transition to renewable energy and a green economy, and build a city that’s more resilient in the face of rising seas and temperatures.

“Climate change is this century’s most pressing crisis and most urgent opportunity. Protecting our city from rising sea levels, devastating flash flooding, and deadly heat waves requires government, businesses, property owners, financial institutions and everyday New Yorkers working strategically to hit ambitious, but achievable goals.  The NYC Climate Dashboard will track our collective efforts to drastically reduce our emissions, convert to 100% clean energy, make a just transition to a green economy, and adapt our infrastructure to protect New Yorkers,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. 

As New York City’s Chief Fiscal Officer, Chief Accountability Officer, and custodian for the City’s pension funds, the New York City Comptroller is tasked with taking the long-term view to manage and address risks facing the city, including the climate crisis that threatens New York City’s physical, social, and financial future.

In the coming decades, risks to New York City include double the frequency of dangerous heat waves, double the frequency extreme precipitation and flash flooding—like Hurricane Ida, and up to 30 inches of sea level rise that threaten our communities and infrastructure.

The dashboard tracks various components of NYC’s initiatives to address the climate crisis, from reducing emissions, to investing in climate solutions, to making our city more resilient. The dashboard aims to illustrate climate mitigation and readiness, including the city’s total energy consumption by power mix; greenhouse gas emissions by building, transportation, and waste; our divestment progress from fossil fuels and investment in climate solutions; and maps of coastal flooding, heat, and stormwater risks.

Key data on the dashboard includes:

• New York City has reduced emissions by 25% since 2005; with a goal to reduce emissions by 80% of those 2005 levels by 2050.
• As of 2020, 76.6% of energy consumption is fossil-fuel based gas and oil. The City aims to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050.
• Over 40% of New York City’s buildings have failing energy ratings.
• Fewer than 1% of vehicles registered in New York City are electric. The city’s 630 electric vehicle charging stations bring us over halfway to our initial target of 1,000 charging stations by 2025.
• The New York City pension funds have divested $2.8 billion from fossil fuels and invested $7 billion in climate solutions.
• Nearly 2.5 million New Yorkers live in the 100-year floodplain today and low-lying neighborhoods like the Rockaways, Staten Island, Eastern Manhattan and Western Queens, and Southeast Brooklyn will become more vulnerable as sea levels rise.

“As the City Comptroller’s first-ever Chief Climate Officer, my mission is to deploy the accountability, oversight, and accounting tools of our office to get our city on track to reduce emissions, protect our neighborhoods, and transition our economy away from fossil fuels. This dashboard tangibly assesses the danger our inaction poses towards our city and keeps us accountable to moving the needle on both mitigation and adaptation. Meeting our emissions reduction and resiliency goals is not an option for New York City – the future of our neighborhoods depends on the collective actions we take now,” said Louise Yeung, Chief Climate Officer for the New York City Comptroller. 

View the NYC Climate Dashboard here.

Watch the video here.