NYC Mayor to focus on buildings emissions

At the Fairview co-op in Forest Hills, Queens, there’s a focus on the future as the climate crisis grows.

“What are we going to leave our children? What are we going to leave our children’s children?” asked co-op board president Greg Carlson.

The residential building suffered damage from Hurricane Ida and residents seized the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint.

“We put solar panels on the roof,” Carlson said, noting that they’ve reduced monthly fuel bills by half.

The panels also helped Fairview begin to come into compliance with Local Law 97, part of the landmark Climate Mobilization Act passed by the City Council in 2019, which set greenhouse gas emissions limits for buildings.

On Earth Day, Mayor Eric Adams announced the Building Action NYC campaign to put more buildings on this path, connecting owners to the NYC Accelerator, a program Adams said, “has already provided free assistance to over 9,000 buildings to help them achieve their climate goals, because this stuff can get complicated, filling out the forms, filling out the documents, moving through the bureaucracy.”

Buildings account for two-thirds of the city’s carbon emissions, but a new dashboard from the city comptroller’s office shows the public and private sectors must take drastic action to reduce those gases dramatically enough to reach the city’s 2050 goal.

Comptroller Brad Lander and others have sought to pressure Adams to better fund Local Law 97 so it can be fully, aggressively implemented.

“Have a real oversight and fines or it will not be worth the paper it’s written on,” Lander said at a March 3 rally hosted by New York Communities for Change.

Adams responded Friday: “We’re still in the budgetary talks, still in the conversation. So many people say, ‘You know, well, Eric is not going to be aggressive about that.’ Wrong!”

For Earth Day, the City Council released a new environmental legislation package that includes citywide curbside organic collection, faster phase out of dirty fuel oils, and electric vehicle chargers in parking lots.

The mayor’s first budget proposal slashes funding for composting, halting the planned expansion.

But Council Member Shahana Hanif, the lead sponsor on the bill for mandatory organics recycling, says the program must continue and be expanded.

“Composting is vital for the health of New Yorkers, simply put,” she said. “We need composting, we need to see it as a vital part of sanitation services.”