NYU Climate Activists Bring Forth “Decarbonize” Initiative

Decarbonize NYU is being pushed by student activists as the university begins to draft its Climate Action Plan.

As NYU quietly drafts its Climate Action Plan (CAP), activists are continuing to formulate their demands. A sub-campaign of NYU Divest, called Decarbonize NYU, has formed to highlight a specific list of asks. A large part of the group’s motivations come from a $125 million investment into its gas-powered Co-Generation plant.

In 2011, NYU completed a natural gas-fired Co-Generation (CoGen) plant that decreased “greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent while reducing air pollutants by 68 percent compared to its 30-year-old, oil-fired CoGen predecessor.” Decarbonize NYU wants the university to commit to 100 percent renewable energy in their CAP.

The CoGen plant could be powered by fracked gas, which is a huge point of concern for Decarbonize NYU. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, two-thirds of natural gas in the United States is fracked. In New York City, natural gas comes from the Marcellus Shale, which is a section deep sedimentary rock that is hydro-fracked. Even if the plant uses natural gas that isn’t fracked, the use of it still produces methane, which has significant negative impacts on the environment.

The organization, in their demands list, acknowledges that NYU has made progress in terms of “building efficiency, its purchases of wind power, and more,” but as a student activist organization “recognize that that the climate crisis calls for more radical, ambitious, and comprehensive action.”

The full list of demands can be seen above, with detailed explanations listed beneath each item. The clearly outlined actions are presented in preparation of NYU’s Climate Action Plan, which is being drafted sometime this year. Divest activists led a teach-in about the effort earlier this week during Divest and SLAM’s occupation of university spaces.

The group remains willing to alter their asks if they receive input from the NYU community. They have already received and responded to input from GCOMMS.

While their demands are detailed, NYU would not be the first university to undergo such efforts. Boston University committed to 100 percent renewable energy in December 2017. Extensive research is being conducted on how to decarbonize entire nations. As Vox points out there is a divide over how to decarbonize; but that the end goal is still zero carbon.

“It’s important that NYU community members have a better understanding of what a truly effective and accountable climate action plan could look like, both for NYU and for other localities and contexts,” says Lola Jusidman, a member of Divest and a leader of the Decarbonize campaign. “While NYU has made spectacular progress in building efficiency and purchases of wind power, Decarbonize is also meant to direct attention to the shortcomings of the CAP so far, especially the fracked gas co-generation plant.”

She also hopes that a broader cross section of the NYU community will involve themselves in the future of NYU’s Climate Action Plan. “There is an abundance of Environmental Justice, Environmental Science, STEM, Urban Planning, and other relevant expertise in this university that should inform the CAP,” she said.

You can read their lists of current demands here:

1. The Office of Sustainability must organize an in-person town hall and publicize it to the entire NYU Community through the President’s office.
2. The Office of Sustainability must plan local stakeholder consultations and invite local EJ community organizations to inform the drafting and evaluation of the Climate Action Plan.
3. NYU must allocate more funding, authority, and staffing to the Office of Sustainability in the service of a more powerful and comprehensive Climate Action Plan and other environmental programs.
4. The Climate Action Plan must be extended to cover NYU Langone campus, the Shanghai Campus, the Abu Dhabi Campus, and all Global Sites.
5. Carbon neutrality is not enough. The Climate Action Plan must commit NYU to achieving 100% renewable power, heating, cooling, and transportation by 2040. (5a) NYU must commit to only purchasing electric vehicles in the future in order to achieve a 100% electric fleet. (5b) NYU must ultimately phase out the gas-powered Cogeneration Plant and install Geothermal systems to meet its heating and cooling needs and some of its energy needs.
6. The Office of Sustainability must count, publicly report, and reduce all major GHG emissions, not just carbon, as well as local pollutants.
7. NYU must account for, publicize, and work to reduce its GHG emissions from air travel. It must work creatively to advance its educational mission while reducing air travel for NYU Community members.
8. NYU’s Board must cease investing our endowment in the Fossil Fuel Industry.