New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday launched an initiative to update and expand the city’s long-term strategy, “One New York: The Plan for a Strong and Just City,” known commonly as OneNYC.
Originally released in 2015 as a resilience strategy and a model for sustainable development, OneNYC provided a blueprint for tackling such challenges as population growth, aging infrastructure, grasping inequality, an evolving economy and climate change.
The city, he said, will begin a digital listening tour to solicit ideas on new strategies.
De Blasio appointed
“Now we will go further," de Blasio said. “Daniel Zarrilli has been critical to OneNYC and will bring his deep experience to the effort to expand that strategy and carry those climate and resilience lessons across the region and around the globe.”
The city, according to de Blasio, will hear from residents across all five boroughs and stakeholders across the region. New Yorkers can go to the program's
In addition, Zarrilli will lead the city’s global climate partnerships to leverage OneNYC and the city’s global climate leadership to build further momentum in support of the Paris agreement through city-to-city networks and other global climate forums and partnerships.
Zarrilli will lead the city’s engagement with global climate efforts in support of deep decarbonization, resilience and inclusive climate action, fossil fuel divestment, and climate accountability actions that can be taken by cities across the country and around the globe.
The city has committed to an 80% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050 and was the first city to align itself with the 1.5C target of the Paris Agreement. At the same time, NYC has budgeted more than $20 billion to adapt its neighborhoods to such risks as flooding, heat, and sea level rise.
The city is also suing the five investor-owned fossil fuel companies it considers most responsible for climate change.
Zarrilli has sat on the steering committee for the first OneNYC strategy in 2015 and was on the city’s post-Sandy resiliency task force in 2013.
Additionally, he served on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Advisory Council from 2014-2017, was appointed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s federal advisory committee for the sustained national climate assessment from 2016-2017, and advised Louisiana on its 2017 coastal master plan update, and served on a C40 Cities expert advisory group from 2017-2018.
The city will host Climate Week Sept. 24 through Sept. 30. The event, organized by international nonprofit Climate Group, will gather international leaders from across the public, private and government sectors to discuss climate-related issues.
