New tool monitors implementation of Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act
The following message was originally published by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, a subsidiary of the Columbia Climate School.
THE Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School launched a new tool monitoring of the implementation of the recommendations of the New York Climate Action Council (CAC) within the framework of the action plan for the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).
The CLCPA — New York’s ambitious climate law signed into law in 2019 — called on the CAC to release a plan for meeting the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. THE final planwhich was released by the CAC in December 2022, serves as a “framework for how New York will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve net-zero emissions, increase the use of renewable energy, and ensure that all communities benefit equally from the transition to clean energy”.
The new Sabin Center Follow-up of the CLCPA framework plan lists the 129 recommendations of the ACC and monitors New York’s progress toward their implementation. Fifty-nine of the recommendations are directed to the New York State Legislature, while the other 70 require regulatory action by executive agencies. With so many actions required by so many different agencies involved, it can be difficult to track progress. The follow-up of the CLCPA framework plan is intended to help you. By compiling the recommendations into a sortable database, the tracker serves as a tool to explore the content of the framework plan and understand the progress and gaps in its implementation over the next few years.
For each recommendation in the scoping plan, the tracker provides a summary of the CAC recommendation, identifies the entity responsible for its implementation, and displays the status of implementation. Each recommendation is marked as “pending” (meaning that no action has been taken towards its implementation), “in progress” (meaning that some action has been taken to implement the recommendation) or “completed” (indicating that the recommendation has been fully implemented). Where the CAC has proposed a timeline for a given policy change, this is indicated in the “Date” column. For each entry in the tracker, users can click from the “Action” column to a page providing more details about the recommendation, including the location of the recommendation in the scoping plan and the verbatim language of the recommendation of the CAC.
Many of the scoping plan’s regulatory recommendations are directed to the New York Energy Research and Development Authority, Department of Environmental Conservation, Department of State, or Public Service Commission, but the plan also includes recommendations for the Department of Labor, the Department of Transportation and a number of other agencies. In addition to 129 recommendations for new laws or regulations, the plan includes hundreds of recommendations for the development of new strategic initiatives and programs. These programmatic recommendations are not included in the tracker.
Although the scoping plan was released only six months ago, progress is already underway on several recommendations. In December 2022, the Digital Fair Repair Act was signed into law, implementing the CAC’s recommendation that legislators require manufacturers to provide information necessary to allow consumers to repair themselves or through third-party technicians. damaged products. During the current legislative session, members of the senate and assembly have introduced at least 13 bills that address the plan’s recommendations. Regulatory proposals relating to 10 other recommendations are also under consideration.
“New York’s climate law is one of the strictest in the world. Its implementation required tremendous efforts by federal, state, and local agencies and the private sector. Our tracker will help everyone see where we are in delivering on the climate law promise,” said Professor Michael Gerrard, director of faculty at the Sabin Center.
Sabin Center Climate Justice Fellow Andrea Nishi 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.
