STATEMENT FROM THE ALLIANCE FOR CLEAN ENERGY NEW YORK REGARDING THE FINAL NEW YORK CLIMATE SCOPING PLAN - December 19, 2022

Today, the New York State Climate Action Council voted to accept the final draft of the Climate Scoping Plan that will serve as a roadmap for climate action in the state to achieve its nation-leading climate goals.

The Plan includes actions to reduce carbon emissions, modernize and strengthen infrastructure, and reinvest in New York’s Disadvantaged Communities to ensure equity and inclusion for future generations of New Yorkers as the state’s economy transitions to clean energy. Specifically, the Plan outlines the necessary steps the state needs to take to achieve 70% renewable electricity by 2030, 100 percent zero-emission electricity by 2040, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030 and to no less than 85 percent by 2050.

The Council is a 22-member appointed body which has met 30 times since March of 2020. Anne Reynolds, the executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, is a member of the Climate Action Council appointed by the New York State Senate Majority.

“This Plan is a sweeping, economy-wide vision for meeting our ambitious mandates,” Reynolds said. “In short, we have to build enough renewable electricity projects to power New York, and we need to electrify nearly everything.”

The Plan outlines several key strategies to achieve the reduced emission goals:

• Retrofit millions of buildings to be more energy efficient

• Transition from fossil fuels to electrification in buildings for heating and cooling

• Build renewable electricity power projects, like wind power and solar power

• Electrify transportation

• Enhance public transit and support smart, mobility-linked growth,

• Transition to low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants

• Maximization of carbon sequestration in New York’s lands and forests

• Stop fugitive methane emissions across the waste, agriculture, and energy sectors

• Provide strong incentives to reduce emissions from industry

But, Reynolds said, there is still work to be done.

“Although we have 28 years to fully implement this plan, some actions need to start yesterday,” Reynolds said. “The most fundamental of these are building renewable electricity projects – like solar and wind power projects – and updating and reinvesting in our transmission grid to ensure the clean power from these projects can be delivered to where it is needed. I worry that if we don’t have our eye on how to overcome barriers to projects reaching construction, we won’t make it to even our first milestone of 70 percent renewable by 2030. We need our climate goals to become construction goals.”