New York City’s new OneNYC plan for future development focuses on growth, sustainability, resilience, and equity to ensure that social justice and climate change are managed together.

OneNYC is New York City’s blueprint for the future. It is a comprehensive long-term plan for sustainable development built on the core themes of prior plans – growth, sustainability, and resilience – with an added focus on justice and equity. Within four key themes, the far-reaching plan has 27 goals specific goals, 62 performance indicators, and 199 initiatives that address everything from waste and transportation to climate adaptation and social justice.

The plan is unique in its added focus on the interconnectedness of poverty alleviation and climate change. The plan aims to reduce the risk of flooding in vulnerable neighborhoods and to eliminate long-term displacement from homes and jobs after shock events by 2050. Through OneNYC, the city aims to lift 800,000 New Yorkers out of poverty by 2025. The plan will also reduce disparity in PM2.5 air pollution across city neighborhoods by 20% by 2030 and increase the percentage of NYC residents living within walking distance of a park from 79.5% to 85% by 2030.

43 million tons of CO2 emissions will be reduced by 2050

The challenge

Despite the city’s overall growth and prosperity, it struggles with high poverty rates and growing income inequality. The fact that the city’s most disadvantaged populations tend to be the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change has spurred New York to action in addressing the connection between climate change and social justice through OneNYC.

Co-benefits

Economic To help lift nearly 1 million New Yorkers out of poverty by 2025, OneNYC aims to spur the creation of more than 4.9 million jobs by 2040.

Environmental Under the plan, New York aims to eliminate the need to send waste to landfills by 2030, thus minimizing the overall environmental impact of waste and reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 relative to 2005 levels.

Health OneNYC seeks to reduce premature mortality by 25% by ensuring that all New Yorkers have access to physical and mental healthcare services.

Social The plan aims to create and preserve 200,000 affordable housing units and support the creation of 160,000 additional new housing units by 2024.

About New York City

The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2016 population of 8,537,673 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Many districts and landmarks in New York City have become well known, and the city received a record 61 million tourists in 2016, hosting three of the world’s ten most visited tourist attractions in 2013.

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