Dive Brief:

• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans for an expansion of OneNYC, the comprehensive resiliency and sustainability strategy released in 2015 as a long-term blueprint for the city.
• The expansion will be led by Daniel Zarrilli, the city’s chief climate policy officer, and will kick off with a digital listening tour in all five boroughs. An updated plan will be released in April 2019, which the mayor’s office says will "reassess key challenges and develop the goals and associated initiatives to address them."
• “NYC faces global challenges like climate change and inequality that require innovative solutions. OneNYC has already shown us the value of setting a bold vision and following through to improve the lives of New Yorkers. Now, we will go further,” de Blasio said in a statement.

Dive Insight:

The program — originally dubbed "PlaNYC" when it was introduced in 2007 under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, before being reimagined as OneNYC in 2015 — marks a sweeping initiative to combine environmental stewardship, justice and economic sustainability, tackling major problems of the modern city like an aging and expanding population, infrastructure and climate change. In a status report released in April, de Blasio’s office highlighted progress on a number of fronts, including a 30-year high in availability of affordable housing, a declining jail population and progress on reducing traffic accidents. The OneNYC banner has encompassed a suite of smaller initiatives and goals on a range of economic and environmental topics.

The latest move shows that the de Blasio administration is not content sticking with three-year-old goals and wants residents’ input on what new goals could best serve them.

Progress on sustainability has been a highlight for de Blasio’s term under OneNYC. The city became the first major city to divest pension funds from fossil fuels, it has increased the use of solar power and electric vehicles and set a “zero waste” goal. The latter, however, has been slow going and implementation has drawn criticism from some city officials. The city also publicly sued five oil and gas companies for their role in the changing climate, although the suit was tossed. 

President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations Paris climate change agreement has moved much of the action to cities, and de Blasio has been a leading force. New York became the first city to submit a report on how it was meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals in July, highlighting resiliency efforts to adapt to climate change. Mayors have banded together in the “We Are Still In” coalition to keep up the U.S. commitment under the Paris accords, and have also launched the “We Are Taking Action initiative to push local climate action.