A Call to Action for New Yorkers (New York Law Journal)
New York Law Journal, June 7, 2017
A Call to Action for New Yorkers
“President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that he will begin the process of withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Change Agreement is a deeply disappointing decision, one that jeopardizes the future of the planet and cedes U.S. leadership on international climate action. However, the announcement also is catalyzing action across the country. If the federal government will not take steps to transition to a low carbon economy and create good clean-energy jobs in our communities, it is up to America’s state and local governments, corporations, nongovernmental organizations and citizens to make it happen. That work begins right here in New York….To be successful, these efforts will need the collective support of individual New Yorkers as well as that of New York’s great institutions and organizations. At the New York City Bar Association, we have organized an 80×50 Task Force to rally New Yorkers and facilitate the joint process of reaching New York City’s carbon reduction target. In March 2016, we held a conference to examine how the association and other sectors of society could form a civic coalition to support climate change action, and have been working ever since to identify institutions, organizations and individuals in New York City interested in joining this effort.”
Jeffrey Gracer is a principal at Sive, Paget & Riesel. Michael Mahoney is vice president and assistant general counsel at EHS Compliance Group, Pfizer. Other contributors to the article were Kevin Healy, a partner at Bryan Cave; Amy Turner, principal of Turner Legal LLC; and Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. All five represent the current and incoming chairs of the Environmental Law Committee and the International Environmental Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association.
