{"id":2302,"date":"2013-10-17T10:53:56","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T15:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=2302"},"modified":"2013-10-19T12:28:58","modified_gmt":"2013-10-19T17:28:58","slug":"environmental-impact-statements-addressing-resiliency-and-adaptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2013\/10\/17\/environmental-impact-statements-addressing-resiliency-and-adaptation\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Impact Statements Addressing Resiliency and Adaptation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ethan I. Strell, Associate Director & Fellow
\nColumbia Center for Climate Change Law
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

In a subtle but meaningful shift, the environmental impact review process in New York City is beginning to more systematically consider the potential effects of a changing climate on proposed projects, not just the effects that a project might have on the environment.\u00a0 In other words, rather than just considering the greenhouse gas emissions from individual projects, environmental impact statements are now regularly considering how a proposed project will be affected by anticipated sea level rise, increased storm surges, more intense heat waves, and the like.\u00a0 In the past year, most City environmental impact reviews for projects located in floodplains have explicitly addressed adaptation to climate change.<\/p>\n

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Background<\/i><\/p>\n

In 1970, the federal government enacted the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which required federal agencies to evaluate the environmental effects of a wide variety of federal actions, including direct federal undertakings, funding, and permitting.\u00a0 Many states followed suit with so-called \u201cmini-NEPA\u201d laws, requiring evaluation of the environmental impacts of state and often local actions.\u00a0 New York State enacted its mini-NEPA law, the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) in 1975. \u00a0New York City in turn implements SEQRA via its own environmental review procedures, the City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR).<\/p>\n

The purpose of all of these laws was to ensure that government agencies were aware of and disclosed to the public the potential impacts of their actions on the \u201cenvironment.\u201d\u00a0 Although climate change has emerged as among the most important environmental issues, the environmental impact review process has been slow to meaningfully include climate change considerations, and methodologies for analyzing environmental impacts\u2014 including climate change\u2014vary across jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

Climate Change Analysis and Guidance<\/i><\/p>\n

In recent years, various federal, state, and local government agencies have proposed or issued guidance on how to conduct a climate change analysis.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 The problem in assessing a project in terms of climate change under the traditional methodology of environmental impact assessment is that greenhouse gas emissions are a global problem, and the emissions from one project\u2014even a very large one\u2014are not likely to be \u201csignificant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adaptation\/Resilience Assessment<\/i><\/p>\n

Given the observed and forecasted changes to the climate, a more practical consideration for many projects is how that project will fare in the future given what today\u2019s best science can tell us about future climatic conditions.\u00a0 For instance, if a housing development is approved now, will rising seas and more frequent floods render that project uninhabitable within its anticipated lifetime?\u00a0 Or how will more frequent and intense heat waves and changing rainfall patterns affect a water supply project, a gas drilling proposal, or a forestry plan?<\/p>\n

In a March 2012 New York Law Journal<\/i> article,[2]<\/a> CCCL Director Michael Gerrard noted that consideration of the impacts of climate change and adaptation to those impacts was \u201cspotty at best\u201d in NEPA EIS\u2019s, and that only a \u201csmall handful\u201d of SEQRA EIS\u2019s addressed those issues.\u00a0 While there still is no definitive policy or guidance document setting forth how or when an EIS should consider adaptation to climate change, New York City has begun to routinely include an analysis of a project\u2019s resiliency to climate change in environmental impact statements over the last year or so.<\/p>\n

The City\u2019s environmental impact review guidance document, the 2012 CEQR Technical Manual<\/i>, includes a chapter instructing city agencies how and when to conduct a greenhouse gas analysis.\u00a0 However, the guidance does not yet include instruction on how to assess the effect of the changing climate on the project, but instead allows agencies to include such an analysis on a case-by-case basis:<\/p>\n

Currently, standards and a framework for analysis of the effects of climate change on a proposed project are not included in CEQR; as this area of analysis develops, the Mayor\u2019s Office of Environmental Coordination (\u201cMOEC\u201d) should be consulted about the scope of climate change analyses in CEQR reviews. At the same time, where appropriate, the potential for a proposed project to result in a significant adverse impact to the environment as a result of the anticipated effects of climate change may be qualitatively discussed in environmental review.<\/p>\n

2012 CEQR Technical Manual<\/i>, at 18-2.\u00a0 The Manual<\/i> goes on to give the example of projects storing hazardous materials in floodplains that could cause a hazardous release from increased flooding.\u00a0 In such a case, the EIS should discuss design measures to prevent such an environmental impact.\u00a0 Additionally, proposed revisions to the City\u2019s local waterfront revitalization program (\u201cWRP\u201d) would require consideration of climate change and sea level rise for projects located in the designated coastal zone.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Recent environmental impact statements have included such an analysis, even where the project did not involve hazardous materials and the like.\u00a0 Specifically, many kinds of projects located in floodplains now include discussions of adaptation and resilience, and also reference the City\u2019s proposed revision to its WRP.\u00a0 The following projects include such a discussion:<\/p>\n