With unprecedented levels of funding available, a coordinated climate resilience plan for New York is urgently needed.
Waterfront Alliance and EDF are Steering Committee members of the Rise to Resilience Coalition.
From Brooklyn to Buffalo, temperatures, water levels, and the cost of climate disasters are rising.
Since the inception of the Rise to Resilience Coalition, we have collectively been calling for New York to create a comprehensive, statewide resilience plan. In fact, the very first recommendation in the 2020 Rise to Resilience Coalition Policy Platform was to “Establish cross-jurisdictional climate governance and a framework for resilience planning and implementation.” Now, four years later, we have an opportunity to make this happen through the New York State legislature.
With unprecedented levels of funding available for climate resilience across the entire state, a clear and coordinated climate resilience plan for New York is urgently needed. We have the opportunity right now to ensure we spend these resources wisely and meet the moment for a healthier, more equitable, and resilient future.
The Case for Statewide Climate Planning
The climate crisis has affected almost every part of New York State, with all 62 counties included in one of 16 major disaster declarations between 2011-2021 alone, according to Rebuild by Design. Earlier this year, New York released a Climate Impacts Assessment. The report details the wide-ranging risks across the state: from increased flooding in the Hudson River and Mohawk River Valley; rising sea levels on Long Island; severe winter storms in the Buffalo-Niagara Region; and greater number of extreme heat days in New York City and the Adirondack Region, climate change is adding stress to communities, wildlife, natural resources, and built environment.
Planning for climate change in New York State is not without precedent and points toward the path for a statewide climate resilience plan. In 2019, New York passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which is among the nation’s most ambitious climate laws, requiring New York to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The CLCPA created a Climate Action Council (CAC), comprised of the commissioners and chair members of 22 state agencies and commissions (i.e., environmental conservation, transportation, health, labor, agriculture, public service commission, etc.) The CAC convenes several advisory panels with expertise on various topics like land-use, energy efficiency, and agriculture. These advisory panels and the CAC work together to create a draft scoping plan, and ultimately, after regional public engagement, deliver a final scoping plan to the Governor.
This model has provided New York with a clear roadmap and action plan for key challenges the state faces, and critical investments and policies that can be made for climate mitigation and sustainability.
Unfortunately, for climate resilience and adaptation, no such roadmap or action plan exists. The current approach for resilience and adaptation tends to be reactive and ad-hoc. Disasters hit and wreak havoc on our communities, emergency declarations ensue, funding is made available, and short-term investments are carried through.
Instead, the Rise to Resilience Coalition is calling for a proactive, comprehensive, and systemic approach to our resilient future. This approach has been successful in other states, like Louisiana, Florida, and New Jersey, and allows for more coordination and collaboration among agencies and municipalities. Proactive planning and investments have been shown to yield a six-to-one cost savings according to the National Institute of Building Sciences.
The State of Climate Resilience and Adaptation in New York
Many agencies and departments within New York are working on plans to prepare the state for climate change. This includes planning and programs for transportation, parks, homes and community renewal, homeland security, and more. Perhaps the most notable is the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which does have a Chief Resilience Officer position to support the agency in coordinating their portfolio of resilience projects. However, relevant agencies do not always work together, which often leads to redundancies, overlapping planning, lack of coordination, and confusion among communities and residents.
Just two years ago, New York voters overwhelmingly voted in support of the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Bond Act. That’s a $4.2 billion infusion of funding in addition to $500 million/year for the Clean Water Infrastructure Act, $400 million/year Environmental Protection Fund, and federal funding New York is leveraging from the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. And yet, ensuring a pipeline of shovel-ready projects—that are part of a coordinated vision—has been a challenge.
Without a plan, we will continue to make parcel-by-parcel investments instead of working holistically to ensure projects and investments work together and deliver even greater results with better outcomes and bring the greatest impact for each dollar spent.
A Legislative Solution
Finally, there is good news. In this year’s legislative session, State Senator Pete Harckham, Chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, introduced Senate Bill 8158—the Climate Resilience New York Act of 2024.
This bill would require the Governor to appoint a Chief Resilience Officer who would oversee the newly created Office of Resilience. This Office of Resilience would be the home for New York’s climate resilience funding, planning, and project implementation.
Under the Office of Resilience, the state’s first ever resilience plan and framework would be established. This plan would be authored and led by an interagency task force of state agencies who are working on climate resilience in any capacity, followed by a 120-day public comment period and at least six regional public hearings (in-person).
The plan would effectively lay the foundation for how New York makes climate resilient investments moving forward. Importantly, the law calls for 40 percent of resilience funding to be prioritized and allocated to disadvantaged communities, consistent with the state’s other climate laws.
Additionally, the law would create a means of tracking progress on the outlined goals, while requiring the state resilience plan to be updated every five years. New York’s Governor, Kathy Hochul, also announced a commitment to developing a statewide resilience plan in her 2024 State of the State address, which puts New York on sound footing to realize this goal. Passing the law simultaneously would ensure this commitment lasts in the long term, beyond electoral cycles.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
New York would not be the first state to adopt this model for climate resilience planning. Florida and Louisiana, for example, have created cabinet level positions, offices, and plans similar to this proposed legislation.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Another climate disaster should not be the reminder of New York’s broken resilience planning. The New York State legislature should act swiftly to pass the Climate Resilient New York Act of 2024 in this year’s session.
