SAN FRANCISCO, CA – New York State and climate tech leader, Aclima, today announced the launch of a historic statewide air quality and greenhouse gas mobile monitoring initiative that is now deployed in communities across the state, which are home to approximately five million New Yorkers in areas overburdened by environmental pollution. The effort to map hyperlocal air pollution and greenhouse gases statewide at the community block level is the largest ever undertaken by any State. The initiative is using Aclima’s groundbreaking mobile-mapping technology, which translates the billions of air quality and greenhouse gas measurements it collects into environmental intelligence through its professional analytics software Aclima Pro.
In New York, the Aclima network is measuring criteria pollutants, greenhouse gases and toxics block by block. Aclima’s mobile fleet collects measurements of fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, methane, carbon dioxide, black carbon, and benzene, among other pollutants. Aclima’s fleet vehicles map during different times, days, and seasons in order to create a more complete understanding of typical pollution at every block and across entire neighborhoods and regions.
Aclima Pro, the company’s professional software, empowers users to analyze and visualize Aclima’s unique data and combine it with hundreds of additional contextual layers to drive climate and public health action. The results will inform New York’s actions, in collaboration with their partners, to reduce emissions and help address health burdens and inequities in communities disproportionately impacted by air pollution.
Air Monitoring Underway in New York Communities
Governor Kathy Hochul first announced the community air monitoring initiative during Climate Week 2021. Monitoring is now underway across the state, including in the Bronx, Buffalo/Niagara Falls, Capital Region, and Manhattan. Aclima’s mobile monitoring fleet is collecting hyperlocal data to drive solutions that reduce greenhouse gases and other harmful air pollutants to protect public health and will be critical to developing strategies to achieve the goals of New York’s nation-leading Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will partner with community-based organizations and local officials in each area to evaluate the data obtained and identify and implement solutions to reduce emissions that impact public health and the environment. The initiative is bolstered by an estimated $3 million in State grant funding for local community organizations to participate in the process.
The air monitoring effort supports New York's goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent by 2050. The program will identify hyperlocal information about air quality impacts in overburdened areas and help the State better target its mitigation activities. This includes a portion of carbon-free investments to identified areas where investments will provide the greatest climate and public health benefit. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) will work within its Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative process to allocate funding to the Community Air Monitoring effort and DEC is overseeing this effort to help ensure that all New Yorkers benefit from the State’s CLCPA greenhouse gas reduction strategies.
"With Governor Hochul's historic commitment, New York is the first state in the nation to measure block-level air pollution and greenhouse gases at a scale that meets the climate crisis with the urgency and reach it demands,” Aclima Co-Founder and CEO Davida Herzl said. “We’re proud to support the State’s innovative data-driven approach that will help prioritize emissions reductions and create jobs in communities most in need of climate action. New York is creating a new model for the nation and the world that turns crisis into opportunity, lifts people up while drawing down emissions, and brings together the best ideas from frontline communities, the private sector and policymakers.”
Aclima is recruiting and training local workers to operate its network, creating green jobs in the communities most impacted by air pollution. BlocPower, a New York-based climate technology company that is rapidly greening American inner cities, is providing workforce development support to Aclima and its community partners to train and staff Aclima’s New York operation.
“Governor Hochul and New York State are leading the world on climate innovation, climate implementation, and climate jobs that pay high wages,” BlocPower CEO and Founder Donnel Baird said. “As the data from the initial investments that New York State is making becomes public, it will become clearer and clearer that New York State is leading the world on tackling the climate crisis — the most pressing problem of our time.”
This first-ever statewide mobile monitoring complements DEC’s existing efforts to measure levels of outdoor air pollution at more than 50 sites across the State using continuous and/or manual instrumentation.
New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan
New York State's nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York is on a path to achieve its mandated goal of a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and to reach economy-wide carbon neutrality. It builds on New York's unprecedented investments to ramp-up clean energy including over $35 billion in 120 large-scale renewable and transmission projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce buildings emissions, $1.8 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives, and over $1.6 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. Combined, these investments are supporting nearly 158,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector in 2020, a 2,100 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011 and a commitment to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Under the Climate Act, New York will build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while ensuring that at least 35 percent with a goal of 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities, and advance progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs of end-use energy savings.
Aclima is pioneering an entirely new way to diagnose the health of our air and track climate-changing pollution. Powered by our network of roving and stationary sensors, Aclima measures air pollution and greenhouse gases at unprecedented scales and with block-by-block resolution. Our professional analytics software, Aclima Pro, translates billions of scientific measurements into environmental intelligence for governments, companies, and communities. Our free app, air.health, maps address-level air and climate insights for the communities we serve. Aclima is a purpose-driven technology company catalyzing bold climate action that protects public health, reduces emissions, and delivers clean air for all. Connect with Aclima via Twitter and LinkedIn.
Media Contact: Sarah Cafasso, press@aclima.io, (978) 944-1946
Link to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Press Release