“My concerns are that if these storms keep getting worse, ancestral remains might come to the top,” said Shantell Jones, secretary of the Flatbush African Burial Ground (FABG) Coalition, a Black-led, multiracial team that has spearheaded efforts to track down remains previously buried here that were removed due to city development.
The bill includes a provision that has the power to curb the expansion of gas infrastructure in New York. “Why put new gas pipes in the ground for new construction, when we’ve already passed laws saying we should be moving away from using gas?” the bill’s sponsor Senator Liz Krueger told City Limits.
Community-based organizations are primed and ready to help New Yorkers deal with extreme weather events but say they need more robust communication, engagement, and financial resources from the city. “This is about long-term cultivation of capacity at the street level,” said Rebecca Bratspies, director of CUNY Law’s Center for Urban Environmental Reform. “And we need it because we’re going to be facing this over and over again.”
“Blue cities and states have much more pension fund money than red states. As the saying goes, money talks. It’s time for Comptroller Lander to put money that he manages where his mouth is. New Yorkers need him to fight for our interests at least as hard as red state politicians fight for the oil and gas corporations.”
A new state-wide report on the impacts of climate change shows New York City will be impacted on all fronts: The Big Apple is getting 6 to 10 degrees warmer, and will see more precipitation and tidal floods in the coming decades. “We have to understand that this stuff is going to happen, it’s already happening,” one state official said.
“If New York is serious about meeting its climate goals, the city must then live up to its stated priorities and give programs the resources to meaningfully follow through on their legislative mandates.”
“Emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 84-87 times more potent than CO2 as a planet warmer, has actually increased. Methane now comprises 40 percent of New York’s total net greenhouse gases, up from 39 percent in 2019.”
Government officials estimate it will cost nearly $44 billion to fulfill the state’s climate law, which aims to stop powering the state with polluting fossil fuels and reduce 85 percent of greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2050.
The Tropical Deforestation-Free Procurement Act would be the first in the U.S. to regulate local companies’ supply chains and require they’re free of products sourced through deforestation. But Gov. Hochul, who has until the end of the year to sign it into law, is touting a revised version that supporters say would render it ineffective.
Environmental groups see the expansion project as a step backward in honoring the state’s landmark 2019 climate law, which seeks to move away from fossil fuels and guarantee that 70 percent of New York’s electricity comes from renewable energy sources by 2030.
City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions, and equip communities to take action.
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