NPCC

New York City Panel on Climate Change

Advancing Climate Justice in Climate Adaptation Strategies for New York City

Introduction

Equity Work Group Co-Chairs: Sheila Foster and Ana Baptista

New York City’s (NYC) current climate justice challenges can be linked to the region’s history of colonization, land dispossession, and slavery, which have shaped past and current land-use patterns and decisions, climate risks, and social vulnerability.

This NPCC4 chapter provides an overview of NYC’s efforts to address climate equity, building on the findings and recommendations from NPCC3. It assesses the City’s efforts to integrate equity into climate adaptation since 2019 and highlights how NYC communities have implemented innovative approaches to address intersecting and ongoing climate and social stressors.

The chapter also provides a framework describing the interconnections and relationships between historical and present land-uses, climate risk, and social vulnerability. While each of these components have been individually studied, there have been fewer studies that examine the relationship of past land use practices to social vulnerability, which leads to specific climate vulnerabilities, leading to future land use patterns with their own inequities.

Highlighting these complex relationships will help the City identify underlying mechanisms that, if not addressed through policy, can lead to more climate inequities.

This chapter also expands the effort from NPCC3 to define metrics that can be used to assess the ongoing vulnerabilities of local populations to climate change. Like NPCC3’s focus on social vulnerability analysis and mapping, NPCC4 describes a novel metric combining social vulnerability and climate displacement into a single score: a Climate Displacement and Socio-Vulnerability (CDSV) score. This metric will identify areas of the city most vulnerable to climate hazards, socio-economic disparities, and displacement. The recommended scoring method is calculated at the neighborhood level to highlight the vulnerabilities of certain populations with intersecting climate risks.

The chapter concludes with an overview of best practices drawn from local, national, and international contexts that prioritize community-driven, climate resilience approaches that are more integrated, equitable, and racially just.

Read the Interim Report

Photo Credit: Manhattan From Williamsburg Bridge” by edenpictures is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Authors

Sheila Foster, JD. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., Columbia Climate School, Columbia University, New York, NY.

Ana Baptista, Ph.D. The New School, New York, NY.

Khai Hoan Nguyen, Ph.D. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

Jack Tchen, Ph.D. Rutgers University, Newark, NJ.

Marco Tedesco, Ph.D. Columbia University, New York, NY.

Robin Leichenko, Ph.D. Department of Geography, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

Summary

Related Links

  • Key Message 1

    The City's climate-related equity work since 2019 has become more explicitly focused on redressing environmental injustice and racial disparities.

    Over the past five years, the City has embarked on four interrelated sets of actions to foster and advance equity in its approach to climate adaptation: (1) adoption of multiple laws and programs to address equity issues related to climate change impacts, (2) internal institutional reforms in the provision of city services; (3) development of indicators and metrics and digital, interactive, and mapping platforms that are publicly accessible to track and monitor city agencies’ progress; and, (4) incorporation of equity into ongoing climate risk assessments and in sustainability and resilience planning.

  • Key Message 2

    The City's climate-related equity work would benefit from more comprehensive data on disaggregated climate risks at the local level and tracking of city-sponsored climate adaptation projects and resilience investments.

    There is limited understanding of climate change impacts and adaptation needs at the community or neighborhood level and limited systematic data exists on city-sponsored adaptation projects and resilience investments. More disaggregated climate risk data and systematic tracking of city-sponsored climate investments are needed.

  • Key Message 3

    Some of the city's most marginalized communities have evolved their approaches to combat a variety of environmental, climate, and social stressors.

    The organizations profiled in NPCC3's equity section report that they are implementing dynamic approaches to address the various risks they face while providing multiple benefits to their communities. These benefits include expanding access to solar energy and providing upgrades for cooling residences experiencing high heat and air pollution exposure.

  • Key Message 4

    The climate change challenges that New York City faces are inextricably linked to the bioregion’s early history, including slavery and land dispossession.

    Understanding the impacts of this history is vital for formulating effective policies and strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change. An appreciation of the historical legacy of climate impacts on the region, and on certain communities, also necessitates a commitment to reparations and restorative justice. By recognizing Indigenous knowledge, seeking restorative justice, and reconceptualizing our relationship to land, the City can forge a future that respects the environment, promotes social justice, and ensures the well-being of all communities.

  • Key Message 5

    Climate risks for the most socially vulnerable populations are linked to both past and present land use decisions and patterns and their underlying inequities.

    Although the relationships between historical land use and climate risk are complex and context-dependent, they often have similar underlying mechanisms such as past discriminatory land use and siting decisions, redlining and disinvestment, and lower land costs in hazard-prone areas. Many of these land use issues—past and present—reinforce one another and create future risks and vulnerabilities. Without the creation of climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience policies and practices that promote racially equitable procedures and outcomes, the City will risk perpetuating these inequities in new forms.

  • Key Message 6

    Climate displacement is an important dimension of social vulnerability to climate change and should be measured by the City.

    The City's ability to measure the risks of climate displacement at an appropriate scale, such as at the neighborhood level, could help determine whether and how new infrastructure or infrastructure investments designed to help the city adapt to climate impacts might risk displacement and identify ways to mitigate that risk. Use of a combined climate displacement and social vulnerability (CDSV) score is proposed to integrate socio-economic, climate risk, and evictions and housing data to better measure the risks of climate displacement at the census-tract level.

  • Key Message 7

    Without anti-displacement strategies in place, resilience-promoting investments can have inequitable outcomes.

    These strategies require several key approaches: (1) incorporating contextual equity and understanding the history of places down to the neighborhood level; (2) taking a holistic approach to reducing racialized vulnerability to climate shocks, including inseparable issues like housing and transit access; and, (3) recognizing that the cost burdens of climate adaptation (e.g., higher energy costs, insurance premiums, relocation) affect people differently—particularly when considered in light of homeownership and wealth gaps—and can result in increased displacement risks.

  • Key Message 8

    Key to achieving equitable climate adaptation is to prioritize community-driven climate resilience approaches.

    As an example of successful approaches, community-based organizations featured in NPCC 3 have implemented climate adaptation initiatives that were attentive to the intersecting nature of climate risks and other health vulnerabilities, including the COVID-19 pandemic. These initiatives include climate mitigation strategies and provide multiple benefits including equitable access to renewable energy, affordable and efficient housing, and economic development strategies that promote equitable green, adaptation economies.

  • Key Message 9

    Best practices from around New York City and the world highlight the importance of integrated, affirmatively anti-racist, equitable, and just approaches to tackling climate risks.

    The three broad categories of best practices identified for more equitable and racially just climate adaptation approaches are: (1) integrative approaches to climate resilience that seek out opportunities to advance just transitions and adaptive economies; (2) community-led planning processes that make adaptation plans more successful in the face of intersecting housing and climate displacement risks; and, (3) collaborative development of goals, programs, policies by leveraging relationships between communities, civic organizations, and state and local government offices and programs.