Prioritizing Justice in New York State Climate Policy: Cleaner Air for Disadvantaged Communities?

Our country and New York State (NYS) in particular are striving to meet the interrelated challenges of decarbonization and environmental justice. Historically unjust systems and policies have led to a disproportional air pollution burden on low-income communities and communities of color. As a result, the federal and NYS governments have resolved to meet their climate goals while improving air quality conditions in disadvantaged communities.Bringing together leading environmental justice advocates, economic researchers, public health scientists, and air quality modelers, Resources for the Future (RFF) and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA) along with researchers at Yale, UC Davis, and Northeastern University have partnered to investigate local air quality impacts on disadvantaged communities from implementation of the NY Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). Specifically, we compare two sets of policies, both in line with the statutory requirements of the law but differing in their ambition and the degree to which they focus on aiding disadvantaged communities, with a business-as-usual (control) case in 2030. One policy case (inspired by recommendations of the Climate Action Council, CAC) models what the New York State government may implement, which includes policies discussed in other jurisdictions and proposed by New York policymakers. The other case (representing what many stakeholders recommend) was crafted by a team led by NYC-EJA and included many environmental and climate justice advocates in New York, who prioritized community protection and directing benefits to marginalized communities. We modeled the impact of policies on the electric power, on-road transportation, ports, and residential building sectors; the effects these policies have on emissions of direct fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and its precursors nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds (NOx, SO2, and VOCs); and the resulting PM2.5 concentrations experienced by disadvantaged communities and nondisadvantaged communities alike. For a full list of policies modeled, see Table 1 in our full report.