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Overview

      Last year, New York state passed the nation's most ambitious climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, or CLCPA. The law also contains the nation's most substantive environmental and climate justice provisions. The CLCPA's mandates, including broad goals for clean generation and energy efficiency, have profound implications for the state's infrastructure. Raya Salter will provide an overview of the law, its justice provisions and what it may mean for New York.

      Mike Harrington will present on his urban heat and environmental justice work that he did with Urban Design Forum fellows this year. Urban heat is consistently the most-deadly environmental disaster in the US. It kills more people than hurricanes, floods and fires and it tends to impact people on the margins. In his work with the Forum, Mike worked with a team of accomplished professionals to create over 40 recommendations on how to equitably deal with urban heat in a city like New York at the long, medium, and short term. This report was done at the behest of the Mayor's Office of Resiliency, who will use the report to inform policy decisions around this persistent and deadly issue.

Speakers:

Raya Salter is an attorney, educator and clean energy law and policy expert with a focus on energy and climate justice. She is a member of the New York State Climate Action Council, which is developing NY’s plan to reach the nation’s leading climate action goals, and the Policy Director for the NY Renews climate justice coalition. In previous roles she was a Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund. Raya has practiced in several jurisdictions, including New York, California, and Hawaii. She is an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School and is the co-editor of Energy Justice: US and International Perspectives (2018). Raya sits on the board of directors of the Energy and Environmental Study Institute (EESI) and is on the advisory board of Evergreen Action.

Mike Harrington is responsible for supporting the work of the Tishman Center by liaising with offices and departments throughout the university and implementing projects that advance The New School’s commitment to sustainability and environmental justice. He was also a fellow in the 2019-2020 Urban Design Forum's Forefront Fellowship, where he worked with a team of designers, policymakers, and planners on creating solutions to urban heat deaths for the NYC Mayor's Office of Resiliency. Before joining the TEDC team, He worked at Elevate Energy, organizing around creating equity in the energy efficiency market; served as the associate board chair of another environmental non-profit, the Delta Institute.

Continuing Education Units will not be available for this webinar.