Testimony of Chief Climate Officer Louise Yeung on Local Law 97 Oversight Hearing
Good morning, and thank you to Chairs Gennaro and Sanchez for the opportunity to testify at today’s important hearing on the implementation of Local Law 97, New York City’s ambitious Climate Mobilization Act. My name is Louise Yeung, the first Chief Climate Officer to serve at the NYC Office of the Comptroller.
As the City’s Chief Accountability Officer, Comptroller Lander takes a long-term view in managing risks facing the city, including the climate risks that threaten New York City’s physical, social, and financial future. At the Office of the Comptroller, we are bringing our unique set of tools to confront the climate crisis. We are proud to be the first and so far only large public pension fund system in the country to divest from companies that own fossil fuel reserves. We are deeply committed to a just transition toward a more equitable, low-carbon, and resilient New York City.
As one of the most ambitious climate laws in the country, Local Law 97 represents an unprecedented opportunity to achieve a just transition by dramatically reducing building emissions and creating tens of thousands of green jobs for New Yorkers.
Comptroller Lander was proud to be an early supporter and co-sponsor of the bill when he was in the Council. We remain grateful to the strong coalition of advocates who worked tirelessly for years to demand bold climate action, many of whom are here today, to former Councilmember Constantinides for his leadership—and extend that gratitude to Chairs Gennaro and Sanchez and a growing coalition of new Councilmembers for picking up the mantle.
But Local Law 97 will only be successful in achieving that bold climate action if we are successful in implementation.
Let’s be clear: this is a massive undertaking. It is essential for serious carbon footprint reduction, and with great opportunities for cleaner air and job creation – but still a massive undertaking nonetheless. Roughly 50,000 residential and commercial properties are covered, about 60% of the built square footage in New York City. Roughly 20% of the highest-emitting buildings will need to reduce emissions by 2024. By 2030, roughly 75% of buildings.
Effective implementation will require clear and timely rules and guidelines for building owners, sufficient staff at DOB and other relevant City agencies, support for owners who need assistance (especially affordable housing and cooperatives), an appropriate mix of fines and incentives to ensure compliance, and strong oversight of the system as a whole.
As a starting point, the City needs to promulgate clear rules and guidelines so that all building owners understand exactly what they must do to achieve compliance. As the rulemaking process wraps up this year, we look forward to remapping that takes a more nuanced approach to categorizing building types so that the emissions limits are more thoughtfully defined for different building uses and types. We are also eager to have more clarity on the greenhouse gas coefficients needed to calculate building emissions, and hope that the rules allow owners to consider rooftop solar installations (including community solar) as effective strategies for compliance.
We want building owners covered by Local Law 97 to be equipped with tools and resources to implement retrofits and achieve compliance. To achieve this, existing teams at the Department of Buildings must be resourced with additional dedicated staff so that the City is never the bottleneck in guidance or enforcement. The Comptroller was disappointed that the Administration did not include additional funding and positions for Local Law 97 compliance at DOB in the preliminary budget. We were glad to see the proposal in the Council’s budget response to add additional DOB staff lines to improve enforcement. We fully support that recommendation and hope those positions are added in the Mayor’s Executive Budget next week.
The City must also expand sufficient resources so that any building owner seeking assistance can be served by technical experts at the DOB or the Retrofit Accelerator, so that the City can provide building owners with a full suite of financial and technical assistance tools—from PACE financing to state incentives—to building owners seeking guidance on how to meet their emissions targets.
Where building owners refuse to comply with the law, penalties will be necessary to address non-compliance; but we should keep in the mind that the goal is 100% compliance, not fines for failure. In those instances where fines are collected, those penalties should go toward retrofits for affordable housing.
We also need to ramp up retrofits to the City’s own building stock to meet the Local Law 97 requirements for public buildings to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. After just a few short weeks working in the Municipal Building, I can tell you we have a very far way to go. We hope to see significant funds in the City’s upcoming Capital Budget, followed by efficient project delivery of capital improvements in public buildings across the five boroughs. One bright spot here was the including of design/build authority for DCAS in the State Budget. Let’s get busy now putting that to good use.
Finally, strong oversight will be necessary to make sure that implementation is taking place with fidelity, that adjustments can be made as necessary, and that we stay on track together to hit this ambitious but utterly necessary target. The Comptroller’s office looks forward to taking part in this oversight work. In addition to ensuring that the City’s budget appropriately prioritizes funding commitments needed to achieve compliance and auditing to make sure the process is functioning as intended. We are committed to publicly tracking citywide progress to retrofit NYC’s public and private building stock through a new Climate Dashboard that we are releasing next week.
We are optimistic about the leadership of DEP Commissioner and Chief Climate Officer Rohit Aggarwala and Acting DOB Commissioner Gus Sirakis, and the abilities of expert teams at the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, the Department of Buildings, Department of Citywide Administrative Services, and the New York City Housing Authority to aggressively uphold the requirements of Local Law 97. We know that the powerful coalition of advocates who mobilized to pass Local Law 97 will continue to be just as resolute in demanding full-throttle implementation. And we appreciate the Council’s leadership in holding this timely hearing to ensure strong oversight.
We look forward to working together with all of you, to hold ourselves accountable to achieving our ambitious climate goals. It is a big task, to be sure, but one that is urgently needed if we are indeed to reach 80% emissions reduction by 2050. Thank you.
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