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A04657 Summary:

BILL NOA04657
 
SAME ASSAME AS S00918
 
SPONSORDinowitz
 
COSPNSR
 
MLTSPNSR
 
Add §1-0103, En Con L
 
Declares a climate emergency threatening the state, nation and world; calls on the state to restore an optimal safe climate and to provide maximum protection from climate change to all people and species.
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A04657 Text:



 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                          4657
 
                               2021-2022 Regular Sessions
 
                   IN ASSEMBLY
 
                                    February 4, 2021
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced by M. of A. DINOWITZ -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee on Environmental Conservation
 
        AN  ACT  to  amend  the  environmental  conservation law, in relation to
          declaring a climate emergency
 
          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  The environmental conservation law is amended by adding a
     2  new section 1-0103 to read as follows:
     3  § 1-0103. Climate emergency declaration and policy.
     4    1. The legislature finds and declares the following:
     5    (a) A climate emergency exists that threatens the state of  New  York,
     6  the nation, and the world;
     7    (b)  Irrevocable  damage  to the environment has been caused by global
     8  warming of approximately one degree celsius demonstrating that the earth
     9  is already too hot for safety and justice, as attested by increased  and
    10  intensifying  wildfires,  floods,  rising  seas, diseases, droughts, and
    11  extreme weather;
    12    (c) On April twenty-second, two thousand sixteen, world  leaders  from
    13  one hundred seventy-four countries and the European Union recognized the
    14  threat of climate change and the urgent need to combat it by signing the
    15  Paris Agreement, agreeing to keep warming well below two degrees celsius
    16  above  pre-industrial  levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temper-
    17  ature increase to one and one-half degrees fahrenheit;
    18    (d) On October eighth,  two  thousand  eighteen,  the  United  Nations
    19  International  Panel  on  Climate  Change  ("IPCC")  released  a special
    20  report, which projected that limiting warming to the  one  and  one-half
    21  degrees celsius target this century will require an unprecedented trans-
    22  formation  of  every  sector  of the global economy over the next twelve
    23  years;
    24    (e) On November twenty-third, two thousand eighteen, the United States
    25  Fourth National Climate Assessment ("NCA4") was  released  and  detailed
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD05922-01-1

        A. 4657                             2
 
     1  the  massive  threat  that climate change poses to the American economy,
     2  our environment and climate stability,  and  underscores  the  need  for
     3  immediate climate emergency action at all levels of government;
     4    (f)  According  to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's
     5  (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS),  global  temperatures
     6  in two thousand eighteen were eighty-three one-hundredths degrees celsi-
     7  us  (one  and  one-half  degrees  fahrenheit)  warmer  than the nineteen
     8  hundred fifty-one to nineteen hundred eighty mean;
     9    (g) World Wildlife Fund's 2018 Living Planet report finds  that  there
    10  has  been  a  sixty  per  centum  decline in global wildlife populations
    11  between nineteen hundred seventy and two thousand fourteen, with  causes
    12  including overfishing, pollution and climate change;
    13    (h)  According  to  the  intergovernmental  science-policy platform on
    14  biodiversity and ecosystem services, human activity has already severely
    15  altered forty per centum of the marine environment, fifty per centum  of
    16  inland  waterways, and seventy-five per centum of the planet's land, and
    17  it is projected that five hundred thousand to one  million  species  are
    18  threatened with extinction, many within the next few decades;
    19    (i)  Globally,  the following records have been made according to NASA
    20  and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):    nine-
    21  teen  of  the  last  twenty  years have been the hottest years; the past
    22  decade was the world's hottest; 2019 was the second  hottest  year;  and
    23  the past five years each rank among the five hottest on record;
    24    (j)  In November two thousand nineteen, the United Nations Environment
    25  Program released the Emissions Gap Report which concluded that to  main-
    26  tain  relatively  safe  limits,  global  greenhouse  gas  emissions must
    27  decline significantly, by 7.6 percent every year, between  two  thousand
    28  twenty  and  two  thousand  thirty; global greenhouse gas emissions have
    29  increased by 1.5 percent every year over the last decade;
    30    (k) The state of New York is particularly vulnerable to the effects of
    31  climate change and has already been subjected to  devastating  disasters
    32  caused  by  global  warming, including increasing superstorms and severe
    33  flooding;
    34    (l) Marginalized populations in the state of New York  and  worldwide,
    35  including  people  of color, immigrants, indigenous communities, low-in-
    36  come individuals, people with disabilities, and the unhoused are already
    37  disproportionately affected by climate change, and will continue to bear
    38  an excess burden as temperatures increase, oceans  rise,  and  disasters
    39  worsen;
    40    (m)  Restoring  a  safe  and stable climate and reversing biodiversity
    41  loss requires an emergency mobilization on a scale not seen since  World
    42  War  II  to  attain  zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors at
    43  wartime speed, to rapidly and safely draw  down  or  remove  all  excess
    44  carbon  from  the  atmosphere,  and to implement measures to protect all
    45  people and species from the consequences of abrupt  climate  change  and
    46  ecological destruction;
    47    (n) Building a society that is resilient to the current, expected, and
    48  potential effects of climate change will protect health, lives, environ-
    49  ments,  and economies.  Resilience is best achieved by preparing for the
    50  most dramatic potential consequences of climate change; and
    51    (o) Justice demands climate policy that addresses the specific experi-
    52  ences, vulnerabilities, and needs of the marginalized  communities  most
    53  affected  by  the effects of climate change, and includes those communi-
    54  ties in climate and ecological resilience planning, policy and actions.
    55    2. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the state of New York  to
    56  restore  an  optimal safe climate and to provide maximum protection from

        A. 4657                             3

     1  climate change to all people and species, globally, including  the  most
     2  vulnerable.
     3    3.  It  is  the intent of the legislature that the state do all of the
     4  following in furtherance of such policy:
     5    (a) Convert the economy to net zero greenhouse gas emissions as quick-
     6  ly as possible.
     7    (b) Immediately initiate  a  multigenerational  effort  to  draw  down
     8  greenhouse  gases already in the atmosphere in as short a time as possi-
     9  ble, and develop research in support of this goal.
    10    (c) Immediately initiate a massive effort to restore ecosystems.
    11    (d) Respond to the climate emergency based on a just transition frame-
    12  work that focuses on  equity,  self-determination,  culture,  tradition,
    13  democracy, and the fundamental human right of all people to clean, heal-
    14  thy, and adequate air, water, land, food, education, and shelter.
    15    (e)  Engage  the  public in climate-emergency-related deliberations so
    16  that citizens can see their influence on the policy and  resource  deci-
    17  sions that impact their daily lives and their future.
    18    (f)  Encourage  nongovernment  actors to contribute to the development
    19  and implementation of solutions.
    20    (g) A sweeping overhaul of the economy  that  centers  on  equity  and
    21  justice  in  its  solutions  is vital to our future and must include the
    22  following goals: dramatically expand existing  renewable  power  sources
    23  and  deploy new production capacity with the goal of meeting one hundred
    24  per centum of national power demand through renewable sources;  build  a
    25  national,  energy-efficient, "smart" grid; upgrade every residential and
    26  industrial building for state-of-the-art energy efficiency, comfort  and
    27  safety;  eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing, agricul-
    28  tural and other industries, including by investing in local-scale  agri-
    29  culture  in communities across the country; repair and improve transpor-
    30  tation and other infrastructure, and  upgrade  water  infrastructure  to
    31  ensure  universal  access to clean water; fund massive investment in the
    32  drawdown of greenhouse gases; and  make  "green"  technology,  industry,
    33  expertise,  products  and  services a major export of the United States,
    34  with the aim of becoming the international leader in helping other coun-
    35  tries become greenhouse gas  neutral  economies  and  bringing  about  a
    36  global transition.
    37    (h)  Support  efforts  for an emergency mobilization to restore a safe
    38  climate in other states and at the federal and global level.
    39    § 2.  This act shall take effect immediately.
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