New York to include climate in all budget decisions

New York City will be the first US metropolis to adopt climate budgeting, and joins London, Oslo, and Mumbai, to utilise the process. Climate will be formally integrated into the city’s decision-making to ensure climate considerations are prioritised in all relevant investment decisions.

“By embedding climate into our budget decision-making, we are changing the very calculus of government spending going forward and acknowledging that climate must be at the forefront of what we do,” said Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City. “From this day on, we will have the tools to evaluate the impact of city projects and programmes on achieving the city’s climate-related goals. By weighing these impacts — both positive and negative — in the critical early stages of the budgeting process, we will know how each dollar the city spends affects citywide sustainability and resiliency.”

Climate budgeting permanently incorporates science-based climate considerations into the city’s budget decision-making process, including by evaluating how actions and spending today contribute to meeting long-term climate targets and continuously seeking to align resources with sustainability and resiliency needs.

The process also initiates a requirement that climate data be provided for capital projects and alongside all relevant agency funding requests, and, moving forward, all proposed sustainability and resiliency investments will be centrally reviewed to prioritise for impact and cost-effectiveness.

The city said that this “novel, precedent-setting approach”, is furthering its position as a global leader in the green economy by leveraging New York’s purchasing power to confront climate change, generate economic value, and reach its goal of 400,000 ‘green-collar’ jobs by 2040.

Eirik Lae Solberg, Governing Mayor of Oslo, and one city already using climate budgeting said: “It’s exciting to see New York City lead the way for North American cities in implementing this powerful governance system for delivering climate goals. In Oslo, climate budgeting has helped us reduce emissions, green the city, and improve the future well-being of our residents. New York’s climate budget will help deliver these benefits and more and show the leadership of New York City once again on climate.”

New York’s climate budgeting analysis will evolve over the coming years to further support strategic investment decisions and the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice will build upon the findings of its recent report and mapping tool to provide recommendations on how city agencies can design and administer initiatives.

Image: Ken Cole | Dreamstime.com