On Wednesday, New York City released their newest sustainability plan, OneNYC. This is among the most detailed climate action plans in the country, focusing on four lenses: growth, equity, sustainability, and resiliency.
Some highlights of the plan include an 80% reduction of carbon emissions by 2050, and a 30% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Other actions include planting 950,000 trees and 6 million feet of reflective rooftop and upgrading building codes to prepare for floods, wind, and extreme weather.
In terms of renewable energy, their previous plan: PlanNYC, detailed a few projects which were expected to have a huge impact on the energy consumption of one of the largest cities in North America. These include a 10mw solar array in Staten Island's Fresh Kills Landfill, 1000mw from hydro-power, made possible through a high voltage line from Quebec to Astoria, and a 350-700mw offshore wind proposal, 20 miles from the battery in Lower Manhattan.
In light of this ambitious plan and the Earth Day celebrations that we have seen throughout this week, we want to provide a summary of what other cities are doing to mitigate the effects of climate change.