Focus on Building Efficiency and Electrification, Technical and Financial Support, Provide Concrete Steps to Get Buildings on Track to Reduce Emissions
NEW YORK, NY (September 12, 2023) — Today Mayor Adams launched a comprehensive strategy to reduce building emissions, including the New York City Department of Buildings’ Proposed Rule to implement Local Law 97, the city’s landmark building performance law. Local Law 97 was adopted in June 2019, and aims to reduce the emissions produced by the city’s largest buildings to net-zero by 2050. The law’s requirements begin in 2024, with increasingly stringent targets in 2030 and beyond.
The Proposed Rule encourages early beneficial electrification in all covered buildings, clarifies the definition of “good faith” efforts for the first compliance period, as provided by the law, and gives direction to buildings that must meet the law’s prescriptive path requirements, striking a balance between addressing challenges faced by buildings such as co-ops and condos and the imperative to reduce climate-warming emissions and achieve the long-term goals of Local Law 97.
DOB’s approach will help ensure that NYC buildings meet 2030 performance standards through efficiency and electrification, while providing buildings the technical and financial support, and the flexibility to invest in improvements in the most cost-effective way. Among the options for demonstrating a good faith effort is submitting a decarbonization plan that identifies specific actions in buildings that will reduce carbon emissions below the cap and a timeline and financial plan for executing those measures; choosing this option prohibits purchase of renewable energy credits for compliance, helping to ensure local investment. DOB would provide building owners that meet the “good faith effort” criteria with additional time to meet the 2024 targets.
To remain on a steady track toward 2030 targets and net-zero buildings, DOB’s final rules must retain this focus on buildings themselves. Such a focus will unleash a massive investment in building envelope upgrades and heat pumps, creating thousands of local, high-quality jobs, maximizing uptake of federal incentives, and reducing harmful air pollutants, all while improving comfort and quality of life for residents.
To proactively support the implementation of the law, the administration also announced today the establishment of a suite of efforts to help owners and managers improve their buildings, scale the workforce needed to make these improvements and identify and access the full array of local, state and federal financial incentives for specific measures. The administration also committed to help advance the J-51 housing quality incentive program, which would provide substantial financial support for low- and moderate-income multifamily buildings to comply with the law. Our organizations look forward to working with the administration to ensure robust implementation of the law, and that buildings – especially affordable housing – have the support they need to invest in low-carbon retrofits, putting NYC on a path to net-zero buildings and setting the standard for the state and the nation.
Regional Plan Association, Urban Green Council, NRDC, Association for Energy Affordability, New York League of Conservation Voters
