The New York City Panel on Climate Change: 15 years of urban climate assessments

The International Panel on Climate Change’s assessment reports form the cornerstone for decarbonization and capacity building to combat the adverse effects of climate change at both international and national scales. However, the scope of the analysis in these reports is too broad for regional and city-level reforms.  

 

In response, the New York Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) was established in 2009 and codified into Local Law 42 of 2012 with the dual purpose of synthesizing the current understanding of the impacts of climate change on New York City and produce climate projections of record for infrastructure planning every three years. Since its inception, NPCC has published four assessments on topics ranging from climate science and projections to infrastructure resilience, equity and justice, health, and energy. The volunteer panelists and contributors, which include scientists and practitioners from a range of disciplines, co-produce the reports in collaboration with city agencies and private sector practitioners.  

In this presentation, we will introduce the framework  used by the NPCC to produce local climate assessments for the largest city in the USA, share results from the most recent panel, and present the work of the 5th NPCC report.