New York City Mayor Eric Adams sees the City’s future as carbon neutral. That means a goal and objective to emit fewer excess toxic gases into the atmosphere and reduce global warming. For decades, scientists have warned that industrialized countries have overwhelmed the environment with pollution levels that threaten the balance of nature and humanity’s existence on the planet.

 

At the Bronx Community Board 7 monthly, virtual meeting of the Housing, Land Use & Economic Development (HLU&ED) committee held on Tuesday, May 16, Cesar Delgado from NYC Department of City Planning (NYC Planning) gave a presentation on what the Adams administration is doing to tackle the issue. He described how proposed changes to New York City’s regulations for business owners and residential buildings could make the City’s energy grid 100 percent renewably based by 2040.

 

The expansiveness of the initiative is reflected in its official project name, “The City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality.” Delgado explained, “[Carbon neutrality] is a city in which we are focused on reducing operational carbon emissions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.” He was referring to the legally binding international treaty on climate change adopted by 196 parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on Dec. 12, 2015.

The accord seeks to limit global warming to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C, while ensuring greenhouse gas emissions peak before 2025, at the latest, and decline 43 percent by 2030. It entered into force on Nov. 4, 2016. While the climate crisis is, of course, global in scope, this is not dissuading the Adams administration from having New York City play its part by implementing local measures like carbon neutrality.

 

On June 1, 2017, former U.S. President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the U.S. from the climate accord, saying in part, “The Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States.” He alleged, if implemented, it would cost the U.S. $3 trillion in lost GDP and 6.5 million jobs. He also alleged it would “undermine our economy, hamstring our workers,” and “effectively decapitate our coal industry.” Trump said he was open to renegotiating the accord, but European and UN leaders said it “cannot be renegotiated at the request of a single party.” The Associated Press disputed Trump’s assertions.

 

Trump also criticized the Green Climate Fund, established within a UN framework to assist developing countries to counter climate change, calling it a scheme to redistribute wealth from rich to poor countries. On Jan. 20, 2021, on his first day in office, U.S. President Joe Biden brought the U.S. back into the Paris Agreement.

In New York City, some of the changes included in the Adams administration’s carbon neutral plan include removing restrictions that limit the installation of solar panels on rooftops, and exploring how to implement more wind-based energy sources. The process is described as “decarbonizing our energy grid.”

 

The proposals form part of a multi-agency effort by the City with NYC Department of City Planning working with the City’s fire department (FDNY) and the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) to increase green investments in City buildings. “The City of Yes [for] Carbon Neutrality is the first of three projects that the Department of City Planning is developing as part of Mayor Adams’ proposal,” Delgado said.

 

He continued, “[Adams] is charging agencies to take a hard look at outdated regulations holding New Yorkers back from investing in their homes, businesses, and our city, overall. A carbon neutral city is a city where we have reduced overall energy needs, and to do this, we will need to retrofit almost every building in the city to become highly efficient to reduce waste and energy.”

 

Delgado said two more NYC Planning initiatives, the Economic Opportunity initiative and the Housing Opportunity initiative, are set to roll out later in the summer and are distinct and independent proposals in the overall push for the City of Yes to meet its climate goals. According to a separate NYC Planning meeting held April 24, these two initiatives aim “to modernize rules around where and how businesses would locate, which in turn will create good jobs, and update rules around residential construction to match the needs of today’s New Yorkers and get us close to the mayor’s goal of building 500,000 new homes across the five boroughs in ten years.”

In the short term, Delgado said cities like New York are responding to what has been described by many scientists as a climate emergency. The Reuters hot list includes many such climate scientists, including U.S. scientist James Edward Hansen.

 

The principal cause of the emergency, according to such scientists, is excess greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide (CO2). According to climate.gov, by adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, people are supercharging the earth’s natural greenhouse effect, causing global temperature to rise.

 

CO2 is produced largely through the burning of fossil fuels like diesel, gasoline, natural gas, and home heating oil. Carbon neutrality seeks to reduce reliance on energy sources that release more CO2 into the atmosphere and instead use alternate energy sources that do not overwhelm the environment with pollutants.

 

As a group, the proposals are understood to be “ambitious,” even as described on the NYC Planning website. If the plans are implemented, New Yorkers can expect to see the city significantly transformed in the next few decades.  Transportation modes will change with more e-bikes, bike paths, and electric cars. There will be less gas and oil heating buildings, with more of these being retrofitted with solar panels. Efforts will be made to decarbonize waste infrastructure by promoting food growth, composting, and the collection of rainwater. It is also envisaged to transform the City’s electric grid from fossil fuel burning plants to solar and wind energy systems and energy storage.

Not all CB7 members were convinced about the need for so much change. Myrna Calderon chairs the bylaws and nominating committees for CB7 and has a different view on the proposals. “Unlike a lot of people in City Planning, at the community boards, and on city council, I actually have a degree in science,” she said. Calderon continued, “I know a lot of this stuff that they’re doing, supposedly to try to help the environment, is actually hurting the environment. Most of this is based on junk science; there’s a lot of scientists that are against all of these mandates.”

 

In an article entitled, “Scientists Who Deny Climate Change,” dated Oct. 23, 2015, Business Insider provides an overview of some such scientists. Meanwhile, the Guardian newspaper reported in October 2021 that British scientist, Professor Philip Jones was head of the Climatic Research Unit at East Anglia University in Norwich, UK, in 2009 when hackers stole thousands of documents and emails from its computers.

 

According to The Guardian, and a subsequent film, “The Trick,” which documents the event, their contents were then carefully selected and used by climate change deniers to promote the idea that scientists were falsely alleging fossil fuel emissions were warming the planet. “Subsequent inquiries rejected all these allegations,” The Guardian reported.

 

Calderon is also concerned about the financial burden such proposals will force homeowners to shoulder. “You’re throwing these mandates at us without any assistance,” she continued. “We’re going to have to take out more loans to catch up with all these mandates…. You keep throwing stuff at homeowners and it’s just making people leave New York City.” Calderon did not appear hopeful NYC Planning would be responsive to her concerns. “They’re just going to jam this down our throats whether we like it or not,” she said.

For his part, Delgado assured attendees he would be sharing his notes, including Calderon’s concerns, with his NYC Planning colleagues and seniors for inclusion in further discussions. He also reminded everyone that “nothing as of now will be mandated. No one will be obligated to adopt anything.”

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story