New tool monitors implementation of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act
The following post is originally published Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Columbia Climate School.
this Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Columbia Law School launched a new tool Track the implementation of the New York Climate Action Council’s (CAC) recommendations in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) scoping plan.
CLCPA – New York Ambitious climate law Signed in 2019 – Calls on CAC to publish a plan to meet the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals.this The final proposalpublished by the CAC in December 2022, as “a framework for how New York will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve net zero emissions, increase renewable energy use, and ensure that all communities benefit equitably from the clean energy transition.”
Sabine Center’s new CLCPA Scoping Program Tracker Catalogs the CAC’s 129 recommendations and monitors New York’s progress in implementing them. Fifty-nine of the recommendations are directed at the New York State Legislature, while 70 others call for regulatory action by the executive. With so many different agencies involved and so many actions required, it can be difficult to track progress. The CLCPA Scoping Program Tracker is designed to help with this. By compiling the recommendations into a sortable database, the tracker can be used as a tool to explore the content of the scoping plan and understand its progress and shortfalls in its implementation over the next few years.
For each recommendation in the scope plan, the tracker provides a summary of the CAC recommendation, identifies the entity responsible for implementing the recommendation, and displays the status of the implementation. Each recommendation is marked as “pending” (indicating that no action has been taken to implement it), “in progress” (indicating that some steps have been taken to implement the recommendation), or “done” (indicating that the recommendation has been fully implemented). If the CAC has provided a suggested timeline for a given policy change, it will be noted in the “Date” column. For each entry in the tracker, users can click from the Action column to a page that provides more details about the recommendation, including where the recommendation fits in the scope plan and the verbatim language of the CAC recommendation.
Many of the scoping plan’s regulatory proposals were directed at NYERDA, the Department of Environmental Protection, the State Department or the Public Service Commission, but the plan also includes targeting the Department of Labor, the Department of Transportation and others. In addition to 129 recommendations for new legislation or regulations, the plan includes hundreds of recommendations for developing new policy initiatives and programs. These programmatic suggestions are not included in the tracker.
Although the scoping plan was released only six months ago, progress has already been made on several recommendations. In December 2022, the Digital Fair Repair Act was signed into law, implementing the CAC’s recommendation that the legislature require manufacturers to provide the information necessary to enable consumers to repair damaged products themselves or through a third-party technician. During this legislative session, members of the Senate and Assembly have introduced at least 13 bills to address the proposals in the plan. Regulatory proposals for an additional 10 recommendations are also under consideration.
“New York’s climate law is one of the strongest in the world. Enforcing it will require a massive effort by federal, state and local agencies, as well as the private sector. Our tracker will help everyone understand how far we are on our climate law commitments,” Said Professor Michael Gerrard, Director of Academic Affairs at the Sabin Centre.
Andrea Nishi, a climate justice researcher at the Sabin Center, led the creation of the tracker. The Sabin Center would like to thank Sophie Patka and Timo Rautiainen for their help in developing this resource.
Andrea Nishi is a Climate Justice Fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
