Port Authority Paris Climate Agreement

In a 2014 report, NYC Roadmap to 80 x 50, Blasio`s administration acknowledged that its stated goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 would be difficult to achieve without “partnerships” with the Port Authority, MTA, the New York State Department of Transportation, NJ Transit and Amtrak. Such a regional plan must take into account the financial reality that the Port Authority and the MTA – which also operates a major bridge and tunnel system – need support if they are to experience a drop in traffic. The future of the Gateway project and Amtrak`s Northeast Corridor must also be seen in this context. Executive Director Rick Cotton called the response a “moral imperative in response to the climate crisis.” “It`s actually a pretty clear path to carbon neutrality,” said Derek Utter, director of development. The proposal is in line with the Biden administration`s climate goals and includes the adoption of 12 new initiatives. Divided into a few main categories (including electrification, renewable energy and sustainable buildings), the initiatives would redevelop airports to achieve zero-emission ground support equipment and increase the number of electric airport shuttles. The plan would also strengthen low-carbon building requirements and set net-zero building standards. In reality, we haven`t done much substantially to reduce the number of vehicles and aircraft using our facilities (although New York`s now stalled congestion pricing plan would be a start). The only way to move significantly away from these modes of transportation is to develop a capital plan and a favourable budget strategy that exempts the Port Authority from airport parking and tolls for passengers and Tolls at Hudson River crossings. If such goals aren`t reflected in the budgets of the Port Authority, MTA, Nj Transit, LIRR, Metro-North and Amtrak, we probably won`t see much improvement in reducing transportation or carbon emissions – period. The Transportation Agency wants to reduce its carbon emissions by more than 20% It has been more than a year since the Trump administration announced that it would withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, a historic agreement to reduce the country`s carbon footprint to combat the global impact of climate change. Any regional reduction in carbon-intensive transport must also include a strategy to create well-paying jobs before the closure of old carbon-dependent jobs, and should take into account the impact of such a transition on bondholders, who initially depend on the collection of tolls and charges by the port authority (and other authorities). If environmentalists do not do this duty, they risk resistance, which is likely to win the day because it pays the bills.

To achieve these goals, the Port Authority will introduce a series of green upgrades at its facilities in New York and New Jersey. Some of these changes will be minor – for example, replacing LED lights in airports, bus stations and the World Trade Center – while others could lead to major changes in the region. For example, the Agency will launch a call for expressions of interest for offshore wind turbines on land at the Port Authority. In New York, however, all transportation agencies in the region have rebuilt or expanded their facilities to full capacity without incorporating the plans. Are the objectives of these major investment projects consistent with regional carbon reduction targets and, if so, what would this mean for the Port Authority? One of the main investments will be in electric vehicles: traditional airport shuttles will be replaced by electric shuttles; the Agency`s “light” vehicles will also be replaced; and it`s about managing a fleet of electric vans. (However, the difference that the increase in electric vehicles will really make without further aggressive measures is unclear.) In the months that followed, New York City and State officials pledged to do their part to comply with the agreement, with recent efforts coming from the Port Authority. The agency announced this week that it would take “aggressive” measures to reduce its carbon footprint — the goal is to reduce its greenhouse gas production by 35 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050, according to a press release. But the carbon at the Port Authority`s plant pales in comparison to the emissions of thousands of planes and hundreds of thousands of vehicles that use its facilities on a daily basis. The agency could do much more to help us transition to a less carbon-intensive transportation sector — if transportation is responsible for 29 percent of greenhouse gases nationally and 36 percent in New York. Yet it has no incentive to do so because its business model today relies heavily on car fees, as well as air and parking fees, to pay for the infrastructure we use to move economies from New York and New Jersey. Fees and tolls on cars and planes amount to $3.5 billion per year and accounted for 65% of the revenue collected by the agency in 2018, its pre-Covid budget for 2019.

We saw this dynamic with our own eyes during the pandemic lockdown, when our skies cleared and the agency`s revenue plummeted. If the public really wants a major shift towards green modes of transport such as rail, then the port authority should be at the heart of a much broader regional environmental transition and transport plan that reduces authorities` reliance on high-carbon revenue sources. It could prepare a comprehensive and in-depth review of climate change objectives, regional transport plans and budgets, and the transport of people, goods and services. The Port Authority — a bistatal agency mandated by Congress with an annual budget of about $8 billion that flew 122.2 million vehicles east to New York through six intersections in 2019 and handled 140.5 million passengers at four airports — is best placed to coordinate these efforts. In 2018, PANYNJ published the port master plan. The plan justifies the AMF`s desire to be a leader in sustainability by reducing diesel emissions, incorporating the latest technologies to reduce or eliminate emissions, and supporting the adoption of alternative energy. The plan plans to explore ways to support the bunkering of LNG (a transition fuel for decarbonisation) at the site and to continue operating the electricity and energy-efficient facilities. If we really want to achieve the goals of climate change, it makes sense to move towards greater use of rail. But we need to be clear about how we are preparing for this change and resistance to it.

Who is forcing those who depend on auto revenues to become clean? Similarly, his New York colleague and former mayor Michael Bloomberg has been a key advocate for cities that abide by the Paris Agreement, donating money from his personal fortune to fill the funding gap, while his nonprofit Bloomberg Philanthropies honored cities as winners of its American Cities Climate Challenge. .