A New York court denied a request for a preliminary injunction blocking part of a resiliency project in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan. The court found that the petitioners did not establish a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act. The court stated that in the absence of a showing of an arbitrary and capricious process, it was required to defer to the Battery Park City Authority’s (BPCA’s) determination regarding the design standards for coastal resiliency projects intended to provide flood protection. The court also found that equities favored BPCA because a delay in the project would impose significant cost on BPCA, which had spent years on planning and design. The court further found that the petitioners would not suffer irreparable harm, noting that the project was a “public benefit project meant to protect Lower Manhattan from future storm surge and sea level rise” and that the “parties simply differ on the best way to accomplish” the goal of ensuring that a park that would be rebuilt as part of the project could be enjoyed by future generations. The court also rejected a contention that loss of trees would constitute irreparable harm, noting that there would be a net increase in trees in the project area as a result of the project.

Challenge to a climate resiliency project in lower Manhattan that would require demolition and rebuilding of an existing park.

Battery Park City Neighborhood Association v. Battery Park City Authority

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Court Denied Preliminary Injunction

Filed

United States of America

New York

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Financial support to help individuals manage the effects of unexpected events, securing their livelihoods and increasing the resilience of people and businesses to the changing climate. It’s especially vital in developing regions where everyday risks, climate-related weather extremes, or crop failures can push people into poverty. Without insurance, people may have to resort to selling assets or cutting consumption to cope with losses.

Codes and standards are regulatory instruments that specify minimum standards to protect health and safety. This ranges from performance standards, which prescribe outcomes while allowing flexibility to achieve compliance, to the more prescriptive approach of technology-specific standards.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience of societies and the economy to climate change.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Technologies that capture and hold energy in reserve for later use.

Risks to the ecosystem health of the marine environment, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, and ocean deoxygenation, harming biodiversity, species health, ecosystem services, and coastal community livelihoods.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

Social protection systems consist of policies that help people manage social risks in order to prevent poverty and maintain decent incomes and living standards

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

This sector creates and distributes information and entertainment through television, radio, print, and digital platforms.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Court Denied Preliminary Injunction

Policy instrument

Risk

Just transition

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance