PlaNYC encompasses a broad-ranging and challenging climate change agenda. Due to the short timeframe (less than 8 months) for development, community groups were not engaged fully in discussing the climate change adaptation aspects of the plan. That is being remedied, at least in part, by the vulnerable community adaptation program now under way. On the mitigation side, a sustainability task force at the Metropolitan Transit Authority is providing a continuing forum for climate change discussions in the region, as is a sustainable buildings series presented by the New York Academy of Sciences. These activities highlight the continuing and important role that local and regional organizations can play in engendering stakeholder involvement in the New York metropolitan region in responding to climate change.

New York City Department of Environmental Protection 2008 Report 1: Assessment and Action Plan—A Report Based on the Ongoing Work of the DEP Climate Change Task Force. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection Climate Change Program. New York: New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Available: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/climate/climate_complete.pdf [accessed February 2009].

Rosenzweig, C., and W.D. Solecki, eds. 2001 Climate Change and a Global City: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, Metro East Coast. Report for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change for the United States. New York: Columbia Earth Institute.

Rosenzweig, C., D.C. Major, K. Demong, C. Stanton, R. Horton, and M. Stults 2007 Managing climate change risks in New York City’s water system: Assessment and adaptation planning. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 12:1,391–1,409.