Opinion: let’s be real about climate change

Climate change is real. The need to reduce the costly impacts of climate change is real (recall Hurricane Ida, Tropical Storm Isaias, Superstorm Sandy, and Hurricane Irene). To ensure New York remains resilient and strong, the state needs an ambitious and realistic plan.

Over the past two years, State agencies, along with hundreds of advisors, stakeholders, and policymakers, have come together to agree on a financially feasible, technically realistic, yet ambitious strategy for meeting our greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and renewable energy goals as required by the State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (aka Climate Act).

The Climate Action Council’s Draft Scoping Plan is a well-researched and detailed road map that proposes multiple paths towards achieving significant GHG emission reductions over the next several decades, while also building out renewables and energy storage. Right now, the Climate Action Council is seeking public comments on the draft plan.

The goals of the Climate Act, signed into law by Governor Cuomo in December 2019, are based on the science established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with New York’s progress to date as a starting point. The Act includes the following directives:

• Three years from now:
  • 6000 MW of Solar distribution by 2025 (the state was up to 2700 MW by mid-2021)
  • 185 TBtu on-site energy savings by 2025.
• Eight years from now:
  • 3000 MW of Energy storage by 2030
  • 70% Renewable energy by 2030
• Thirteen years from now:
  • 9000 MW of Offshore wind by 2035
• Eighteen years from now
  • 100% Zero-emission electricity by 2040
• Twenty-eight years from now:
  • 85% reduction in GHG emissions below 1990 by 2050

The Draft Plan demonstrates that achieving these climate targets is technically feasible AND will require high levels of transformation in every sector. For example, over the next 8 years, we need to electrify 1-2 million homes with heat pumps and replace 3 million gas vehicles on the road with EVs.

Existing fossil fuel fired power plants will be phased out over the next fifteen years, while clean energy resources will be ramped up.

The 330-page plan outlines details for wind, solar, offshore wind, hydro, fuel cells and energy storage; it recommends that the state research viability and financial support for integrating solar into agricultural communities (known as agrivoltaics); and many, many additional policies and programs.

Financially, the “integration analysis” (how everything will fit together) finds that the cost of inaction is a lot more than the cost of action (by over $90 billion) due to savings in public health and avoided economic impacts of damages caused by climate change. This plan will save us money in the long run.

Climate affects everyone and New York’s Climate Plan needs your input. Former State Senator Jen Metzger gives an excellent overview in a slide deck available at tinyurl.com/ycfudb7u. You can quickly leave a public comment (even as simple as Heck Yes) at https://climate.ny.gov/. And there will be six public hearings where you can provide feedback before the plan is finalized by the end of 2022. We encourage you to learn and comment.