In a sweeping effort to reduce its environmental impact, New York City is planning to overhaul the energy-efficiency standards of all its public buildings and to pressure private landlords to make similar improvements.
The initiative is part of a pledge, to be announced before the start of the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday, to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels. The United Nations has pointed to that rate of decrease as a desired target for developed countries to mitigate the effects of climate change.
New York would become the largest city in the world to make the commitment, according to the city’s leaders.
Though the proposal is likely to rankle some residential and commercial building owners, who will bear a portion of its cost, officials have framed the issue in part as an extension of the citywide focus on income inequality since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office in January. High energy costs, the de Blasio administration argues, amount to a regressive tax, because lower-income residents by and large pay a higher share of their rent for energy than wealthier residents, and often live in less-efficient buildings. The long-term savings could prove to be a financial boost for lower-income residents, officials said — to say nothing of the environmental benefits.
Such ambitions, though, will come at a significant near-term price: At least $1 billion of its capital funding alone will be devoted to enhancing the city-owned buildings over the next decade, the administration said, excluding the cost of the private building alterations and other changes. Though the city’s many competing financial interests mean there are typically few spending guarantees, particularly on projects intended to span decades, officials insist the money will be incorporated in its 10-year capital plan, to be released early next year.
“Global warming was much more of an abstraction to New York City until two years ago,” Mr. de Blasio said in an interview on Friday, alluding to Hurricane Sandy, which in 2012 caused 44 deaths and resulted in $19 billion of damage to the city. “There’s a moral imperative to act.”
But with a global audience looking toward New York this week, as world leaders including President Obama converge to discuss climate change, Mr. de Blasio is training attention not just on its waterfront but on its skyline: The city — dense and walkable, with an extensive subway system — has long been more environmentally friendly than most. As a result, nearly three-quarters of emissions come from energy used in buildings.
Possible upgrades will range from changes like lighting or boiler improvements to solar-power installations and the introduction of an “air conditioner exchange program” in public housing, where the units tend to be older and less efficient.
The measures are intended to help the city take a significant step toward a “complete transition away from fossil fuels,” according to a 111-page draft report on the proposals.
In total, the city said, building-based greenhouse gas emissions are expected to fall an additional 10 percent by 2025, the equivalent of removing more than 700,000 vehicles from the road.
Over the last several years, and particularly since Hurricane Sandy, the city has aimed to protect itself better from extreme weather. Months before leaving office, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, an independent, proposed a $20 billion storm protection plan for a sprawling network of flood walls, levees and bulkheads, among other initiatives — a vision that Mr. de Blasio has largely moved to adopt and expand. The Bloomberg administration also published a report last December discussing strategies to further reduce emissions by 2050, many of which are included in the city’s latest plan.
Boston, San Francisco and Stockholm are among cities that have made similar commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, who plans to participate in the People’s Climate March in Manhattan on Sunday, predicted his program would prompt other cities to follow. “We know when New York City acts, it helps move policy in other places,” he said.
The administration said it could complete many of the changes unilaterally; others will require support from the City Council, which unveiled a related package of legislation on Friday.
In the early months of Mr. de Blasio’s term, he faced modest criticism from some environmental advocates, who suggested he had not provided enough details on his climate plans, and for not yet naming a permanent leader for the city’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability.
But groups briefed on the plan on Friday gave it generally high marks. Donna DeCostanzo of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said the package of building changes “could be the most far-reaching one of its kind.”
Others pointed to the potential cost reductions. By 2025, according to the city’s estimates, the upgrades will yield more than $1.4 billion per year in savings.
The de Blasio administration also plans to expand an existing mandate requiring buildings over 50,000 square feet to track and disclose energy use annually and upgrade lighting. Under the change, any building larger than 25,000 square feet would be subject to the requirements, bringing as many as 16,000 buildings in the five boroughs under the mandate for the first time.
Building on programs adopted by the state — which in 2009 set its own goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels — city officials will also offer grants and other incentives to owners. As part of a “green grant program” for affordable housing, officials said, the city will pay for efficiency upgrades if owners agree to preserve lower-cost units in a given building.
Though some landlords seem likely to resist the changes without legal prodding, the city’s push earned praise from the leader of the powerful Real Estate Board of New York. Rob Speyer, the board’s chairman, said in a statement that the mayor’s goals of increased energy efficiency and reduced emissions would “help solidify New York’s standing as the world’s model of sustainability.”
City officials said many New York real estate owners had already embraced “green” buildings, citing their operational savings and attractiveness to some high-end renters. Anthony E. Shorris, the first deputy mayor, said many owners were “already doing some of these things for pure economic reasons.”
The city would not say when a more aggressive mandate might be applied if owners failed to adopt the necessary changes on their own. Mr. de Blasio said there was “a growing understanding in the private sector that this is everyone’s problem.”
“If we don’t see progress,” he added, “we will certainly move to mandate.”