Comptroller Publishes Pension Emissions Data and Updates Dashboard on Progress Towards Climate Goals

New York, NY – Ahead of Earth Day, the New York City Comptroller’s Office published new data and analysis features on the NYC Climate Dashboard, which tracks the City’s progress toward meeting its climate commitments.

The Dashboard tracks key metrics on the City’s energy transition, emissions, and resiliency infrastructure. New features added this week include climate finance data on emissions from the City’s pension investments to measure progress toward their net zero portfolio emissions by 2040 goals and map overlays to enable analysis of climate impacts and indicators for neighborhoods designated as environmental justice areas with low-income communities of color.

The New York City Employees Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System, and Board of Education Retirement System reduced emissions by 21%, 27%, and 16% respectively since December 2019 and are on track towards new interim emissions reduction goals for 2025 and 2030. The Dashboard includes Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions data for the three pension systems, which voted recently to disclose emissions as part of their implementation plans to reach net zero by 2040.

The Dashboard’s existing metrics were also updated for 2023. Key climate data changes include:

• After a drop in overall city emissions in 2020 during the first year of the pandemic, emissions from buildings, transportation, and waste went back up in 2021—putting the city further away from its emissions reduction goals.
• New York City power mix is now 89% fossil-fuel, an increase from 75% in 2020 largely due to the closure of the Indian Point Power Plant.
• The City installed 72 megawatts of solar in 2022. If the rate of solar installation continues at this rate for the next 8 years, the City can meet its modest goal of installing 1,000 megawatts of solar power by 2030.
• Building energy scores saw modest improvements, a 2% increase in Energy Star Scores A and B, 1% decrease in D-graded buildings.

“The NYC Climate Dashboard is a tool for educators, journalists, advocates, and every day New Yorkers to hold the City accountable to its climate goals. The new features will track our progress in reducing our pensions portfolios’ emissions, give insight to how heat and flooding impact low-income communities of color, and help assess progress towards a clean energy future. While some of the progress ebbed and flowed over the past year, we must stay vigilant to move forward on mitigating harm and increasing the city’s resiliency in the face of rising seas and temperatures,” said Louise Yeung, Chief Climate Officer for the New York City Comptroller’s Office.

View the updated NYC Climate Dashboard here.

###