Conclusions and recommendations

New York City faces significant risks from climate change and must begin taking action immediately to protect its citizens. Climate change adaptation demands a reexamination of the everyday assumptions about managing the city’s critical infrastructure. Climate impacts will occur over a number of timescales. Some are already being felt today and should be addressed in the near-term, while others will occur later in the century and should be addressed as part of a long-term risk-based approach to climate change. Climate change adaptation plans should be developed as part of a risk management process, an approach that has governed the work of the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC). The use of a risk management approach to adaptation was pioneered by the Thames Estuary Project. The approach involves a process through which cutting-edge data and information on climate risks and critical infrastructure can be monitored and assessed, and decisions evaluated and reevaluated as climate change progresses. To aid in this process, the NPCC has produced New York City–specific climate change projections and a clearly defined adaptation assessment process to assist stakeholders in the identification and prioritization of potential risks that should be taken into account when making investment and planning decisions. Mitigation actions are undertaken to reduce the long-term risks of climate change through reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, while adaptation is needed to respond to the short-term risks that are unavoidable as well as to long-term risks, such as sea level rise. Climate change mitigation and adaptation are both important elements in PlaNYC, and both contribute to the long-term sustainability of the city. The results and findings of the NPCC’s work, while broad in scope, can be distilled to a set of primary conclusions, recommendations for action, and additional areas for study.