Major changes to electricity systems, transportation and other sectors are needed to meet ambitious greenhouse gas targets.
New York’s landmark climate bill, which commits America’s third-largest state to effectively eliminating greenhouse emissions by midcentury, ranks among U.S. climate hawks’ greatest political victories.
The bill’s passage earlier this year was the result of a multiyear push by climate activists in Albany. It happened after Democrats swept Republicans out of the majority in the state Senate during last fall’s midterm elections.
But if enacting the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act was a heavy lift, actually meeting its goals will be even more difficult.
New York has considerable work to do to achieve the targets of the legislation. It cut emissions 8% between 1990 and 2015, according to the most recent state greenhouse gas inventory. The new law calls for reducing emissions by 40% of 1990 levels by 2030 and 85% by 2050 (Climatewire, June 18). The remaining 15% of emissions would be offset to make the state carbon neutral.
“We acknowledge these goals are extremely ambitious. They need to be in order to meet the level of greenhouse gas reduction scientists tell us is necessary to avert the worst impacts of climate change. And we acknowledge there is not a playbook we can pull off the shelf for how to decarbonize the world’s 13th-largest economy,” said Alicia Barton, who leads the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. “New York is committed to writing that playbook, to not only having a vision but backing it up with concrete plans.”
