Bill Text: NY S07297 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: 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.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-16 - REFERRED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION [S07297 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S07297-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          7297

                    IN SENATE

                                    January 16, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen. SANDERS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee 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
    26  the massive threat that climate change poses to  the  American  economy,
    27  our  environment  and  climate  stability,  and underscores the need for
    28  immediate climate emergency action at all levels of government;

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD14825-02-0
        S. 7297                             2

     1    (f) According to the National Aeronautics and  Space  Administration's
     2  (NASA)  Goddard  Institute for Space Studies (GISS), global temperatures
     3  in two thousand eighteen were eighty-three one-hundredths degrees celsi-
     4  us (one and  one-half  degrees  fahrenheit)  warmer  than  the  nineteen
     5  hundred fifty-one to nineteen hundred eighty mean;
     6    (g)  World  Wildlife Fund's 2018 Living Planet report finds that there
     7  has been a sixty per  centum  decline  in  global  wildlife  populations
     8  between  nineteen hundred seventy and two thousand fourteen, with causes
     9  including overfishing, pollution and climate change;
    10    (h) According to  the  intergovernmental  science-policy  platform  on
    11  biodiversity and ecosystem services, human activity has already severely
    12  altered  forty per centum of the marine environment, fifty per centum of
    13  inland waterways, and seventy-five per centum of the planet's land,  and
    14  it  is  projected  that five hundred thousand to one million species are
    15  threatened with extinction, many within the next few decades;
    16    (i) Globally, the following records have been made according  to  NASA
    17  and  the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):  nine-
    18  teen of the last twenty years have been  the  hottest  years;  the  past
    19  decade  was  the  world's hottest; 2019 was the second hottest year; and
    20  the past five years each rank among the five hottest on record;
    21    (j) In November two thousand nineteen, the United Nations  Environment
    22  Program  released the Emissions Gap Report which concluded that to main-
    23  tain relatively  safe  limits,  global  greenhouse  gas  emissions  must
    24  decline  significantly,  by 7.6 percent every year, between two thousand
    25  twenty and two thousand thirty; global  greenhouse  gas  emissions  have
    26  increased by 1.5 percent every year over the last decade;
    27    (k) The state of New York is particularly vulnerable to the effects of
    28  climate  change  and has already been subjected to devastating disasters
    29  caused by global warming, including increasing  superstorms  and  severe
    30  flooding;
    31    (l)  Marginalized  populations in the state of New York and worldwide,
    32  including people of color, immigrants, indigenous  communities,  low-in-
    33  come individuals, people with disabilities, and the unhoused are already
    34  disproportionately affected by climate change, and will continue to bear
    35  an  excess  burden  as temperatures increase, oceans rise, and disasters
    36  worsen;
    37    (m) Restoring a safe and stable  climate  and  reversing  biodiversity
    38  loss  requires an emergency mobilization on a scale not seen since World
    39  War II to attain zero greenhouse gas emissions  across  all  sectors  at
    40  wartime  speed,  to  rapidly  and  safely draw down or remove all excess
    41  carbon from the atmosphere, and to implement  measures  to  protect  all
    42  people  and  species  from the consequences of abrupt climate change and
    43  ecological destruction;
    44    (n) Building a society that is resilient to the current, expected, and
    45  potential effects of climate change will protect health, lives, environ-
    46  ments, and economies.  Resilience is best achieved by preparing for  the
    47  most dramatic potential consequences of climate change; and
    48    (o) Justice demands climate policy that addresses the specific experi-
    49  ences,  vulnerabilities,  and needs of the marginalized communities most
    50  affected by the effects of climate change, and includes  those  communi-
    51  ties in climate and ecological resilience planning, policy and actions.
    52    2.  It is hereby declared to be the policy of the state of New York to
    53  restore an optimal safe climate and to provide maximum  protection  from
    54  climate  change  to all people and species, globally, including the most
    55  vulnerable.
        S. 7297                             3

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