Climate Jobs NY Update: A Climate for Change, A Climate Jobs Roadmap for New York City

Today, Climate Jobs New York (CJNY), in partnership with Cornell University, released “A CLIMATE FOR CHANGE, A CLIMATE JOBS ROADMAP FOR NEW YORK CITY,” a report representing labor’s climate jobs agenda for New York City. Climate Jobs NY unions will be outlining the recommendations to the Adams administration and to the City Council in a series of briefings starting today. Click here to read the report.

The report examines the impact of climate breakdown and the pandemic on NYC workers and frontline communities, and offers a suite of policy recommendations to build an equitable clean energy economy that tackles climate change and racial and economic inequality. Here are the highlights:

• Decarbonizing K-12 public school buildings by conducting deep retrofits and installing 1.1 gigawatts of renewable energy plus battery storage by 2030;
• Build three (3) gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 under a project labor agreement and conducting a feasibility study on green hydrogen production potential at offshore wind ports and onshore substations;
• Electrify transportation by 2030 by prioritizing high-quality job creation and equity, and keeping important infrastructure assets under public purview;
• Implement A More Just NYC Renewable Rikers proposal through direct installation of a 90-megawatt solar farm, 300-megawatts of battery storage and construction of a wastewater resource recovery facility under a Project Labor Agreement on Rikers Island by 2035; and
• Expand the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development to liaise directly with City agencies and develop a robust system of interagency cooperation to achieve workforce goals.

Click here to read the full report.