Monthly Archives: September 2021

With record heat waves globally and extreme flooding impacting Europe and China, now is a pivotal moment to interrogate the interplay of technology and the environment, including the role of artificial intelligence (AI).

What would it take to make AI greener? On the one hand, we first need to collectively recognize that there are tangible costs to the creation and use of AI systems and, in fact, they can be quite large. GPT-3, a recent powerful language model by OpenAI, is estimated to have consumed enough energy in training to leave a carbon footprint equivalent to driving a car from Earth to the moon and back.

There are beneficial impacts that AI can have on our relationship to the environment as well. A comprehensive study in 2020 assessed the potential impact of AI on the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, encompassing societal, economic and environmental outcomes. The researchers found that AI could positively enable 93% of the environmental targets, including the creation of smart and low-carbon cities; Internet-of-Things devices and appliances that can modulate their consumption of electricity; better integration of renewable energy through smart grids; the identification of desertification trends via satellite imagery; and combating marine pollution.

AI use cases in industry can serve to help the environment and reduce carbon emissions. For example, OYAK Cimento, a Turkish based cement manufacturing group is using AI to significantly reduce their carbon footprint. According to Berkan Fidan, Performance & Process Director at OYAK Cimento: Enterprise AI-assisted process control helps to increase operational efficiency, which means higher production with lower unit energy consumption. If we consider a single moderate capacity level cement plant with 1 million tons of cement production, just a 1% of additional clinker reduction with AI-assisted process and quality control produces a reduction of around 7,000 tons of CO2 per year. This equals CO2 absorption of 320,000 trees in a year.

According to the think tank Chatham House, cement accounts for approximately 8% of CO2 emissions. Thus, there is a clear environmental need to improve efficiency in cement manufacturing and one tool to do so is AI.

Another example of AI having a positive environmental impact concerns Entel, the largest Chilean telecommunications company, and sensor data to identify forest fires. It takes a collaborative effort to successfully fight forest fires that have been raging in many parts of the world, including Greece and Northern California. Chile is frequently impacted by severe climate change and catastrophic weather conditions, which previously led to the worst wildfire in Chiles history in 2017 that resulted in the burning of around 714,000 acres. For a country steeped in natural wonder, with a population and economy that depends heavily on thriving forests, any type of wildfire is a devastating tragedy.

Entel Ocean, the digital unit of Entel, sought to identify fires earlier using IoT sensors. These sensors act as a digital nose placed on trees, capable of detecting particles in the air. The data produced by these sensors enabled Entel Ocean to use AI for automatically predicting when a forest fire would start. We have been detecting a forest fire 12 minutes before traditional methods this is a big deal when it comes to preventing fires, says Lenor Ferrebuz Bastidas, enterprise digital solutions spokesperson for Entel Ocean. Considering fire can spread in a matter of seconds, every minute helps.

Through these applications, AI can be a powerful tool to combat climate change. But its role also as a contributor cannot be overlooked. To that end, the first step is to promote the practice of more holistic and multidimensional model evaluation. To date, the major focus of research and innovation has been on improving accuracy or creating new algorithm methods. These aims often consume larger and larger amounts of data, building ever more complex models. The most telling example is in deep learning, where computational resources went up 300,0000 times between 2012-2018.

Yet, the relationship between model accuracy and complexity is logarithmic. For exponential increases in model size and training requirements, there are linear improvements to performance. In the hunt for accuracy, less priority is given to developing methods with improved time-to-train or resource efficiency. Moving forward, we need to recognize the trade-off between model accuracy and efficiency and the models carbon footprint, regarding both during training and when making inferences.

Its an annual meeting featuring top examples of public-private cooperation and Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies being used to develop the sustainable development agenda.

It runs alongside the United Nations General Assembly, which this year features a one-day climate summit. This is timely given rising public fears and citizen action over weather conditions, pollution, ocean health and dwindling wildlife. It also reflects the understanding of the growing business case for action.

The UNs Strategic Development Goals and the Paris Agreement provide the architecture for resolving many of these challenges. But to achieve this, we need to change the patterns of production, operation and consumption.

The World Economic Forums work is key, with the summit offering the opportunity to debate, discuss and engage on these issues at a global policy level.

The carbon footprint of a model can be complicated to determine and compare across modelling approaches and data centre infrastructures. A reasonable place to start may be by assessing the number of floating-point operations that is, a discrete count of how many simple mathematical operations (for example, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, and variable assignment) that need to be performed to train a model. This factor and others can impact energy consumption along with the architecture of the model and the training resources, such as hardware like GPU or CPUs. Additionally, the physical considerations of the storage and cooling of the servers comes into play. As a final complication, it also matters where the energy is sourced from. Energy primarily from renewable resources compared to natural gas or coal will have a reduced carbon footprint.

Lets ask: How much more can we do with less? Taking into account energy-conserving constraints may drive us towards new and creative innovations in AI. By pivoting to this mindset instead of bigger is always better and by pursuing AI use cases in the environmental space, AI can remain at the cutting edge, becoming a sustainable technology of the future and a major asset in the protection of our global climate.

Written by

Sarah Khatry, Managing Director, AI Ethics, DataRobot

Ted Kwartler, VP, Trusted AI, DataRobot

Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum

Mark Caine, Project Lead, Artificial Intelligence and Machine LearningProject Lead, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, World Economic Forum

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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What would it take to make AI 'greener'? - World Economic Forum

In todays globalised economy, South Africa needs to integrate into global value chains in a strategic way. (Photo: m.polity.org.za)

This article is based on Framing Structural Transformation in South Africa and Beyond, the first chapter of the book, Structural Transformation in South Africa: The Challenges of Inclusive Industrial Development in a Middle-Income Country. It is authored by the books editors: Antonio Andreoni, Pamela Mondliwa, Simon Roberts, and Fiona Tregenna.

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic inflicted the deepest recession on the global economy yet registered in peace time. The hardest impact of the recession has been on the most vulnerable in society, increasing inequalities and unemployment, and exacerbating long-standing economic problems. Since the onset of the recession, countries have been looking for a rebound in their economies and new pathways to sustained and more inclusive growth. Some have been more successful than others.

The latest figures for South Africa point to a 1.2% expansion of the economy in the second quarter of 2021, the fourth consecutive positive sign of recovery. However, this expansion is significantly lower than what is needed to return to pre-Covid levels.

In fact Covid pushed back the South African economy to its size in 2017.

This effectively means that three years of economic growth have been lost. Bringing back growth is not the only challenge for South Africa; indeed, in the past the country has experienced some phases of growth. The biggest challenge now is to sustain growth over time and deliver real economic change that is inclusive and sustainable.

Policymakers need to move beyond short-term measures and put in place measures that tackle entrenched, historical problems and enable real economic change. Taking up this challenge, a new volume, Structural Transformation in South Africa: The Challenges of Inclusive Industrial Development in a Middle-Income Country (Oxford University Press, 2021, free for download here) points to key elements of a viable path out of these problems. The bottom line, it concludes, is that there is no shortcut to real economic change, but that real structural transformation is required.

How have we got to this point?

Since 1994, South Africa has struggled to sustain an adequate process of structural transformation. The productive sectors of the economy have seen limited upgrading and diversification, which are prerequisites for this. As a result, the growth in domestic value addition, productivity and employment especially in the manufacturing industries has been limited.

We do the same things, and we do not innovate enough in the making. Without such changes in the productive sectors of the economy, opportunities for broader social and institutional transformation remain limited. Social mobility and inclusiveness via better and more jobs cannot materialise.

This is despite the fact that South Africa has, in recent years, looked to industrial policy as an instrument for driving structural transformation.

But while there have been positive developments in specific sectors, overall the industrial structure has changed relatively little since 1994. Fixed investment has remained low, and there has been some premature deindustrialisation. Higher levels of investment are essential for building production and skills across sectors in South Africa. However, we have not experienced the hoped-for broad-based growth which would reverse the legacy of apartheid policies that had focused the economy on a narrow mining and heavy industry base.

The extensive trade liberalisation and international integration starting in the 1990s increased imports and exports, with imports making up around one-third or more of domestic demand for manufactured goods. Overall, while some sectors had lower imports and despite some change around the growth of auto exports, the general picture is one of failure to significantly diversify the countrys export profile which still sees minerals and resource-based industries constituting a high percentage of exports. Trade liberalisation has contributed to the weakening of South African manufacturing, especially in labour-intensive industries that are directly important for employment.

South Africas failure to diversify is evident in two ways.

First, traditional resource-based sectors are mainly responsible for industry output growth in the economy. Second, higher levels of investment in the manufacturing sector have continued to be concentrated in these sectors rather than shifting to more diversified manufacturing activities.

Despite some areas of relative success, overall growth and upgrading in industries have been constrained by low levels of investment. Firms have struggled to build their productive capabilities, diversify their production activities and develop their domestic supply chains. Given this weakening industrial base, the engagements with global value chains (GVCs) and the emerging technologies of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution have been limited, and have generally not delivered the desired outcomes. The imperatives of greater inclusion and environmental sustainability are major cross-cutting challenges linked to the overall challenge of structural transformation.

Where do we go from here?

Because real economic transformation is multifaceted, an effective response needs to be holistic and requires purposive and coordinated industrial policies. In todays globalised economy, South Africa needs to integrate intoglobal value chains in a strategic way.

This means using global market opportunities to build, upgrade and diversify local capabilities among its productive organisations. Industrial policy is, however, doomed to fail without a strong state and all key stakeholders uniting behind a common vision of achieving inclusive growth. This is the direction of growth that the state should pursue.

One of the key ingredients to effecting real economic transformation is starting with what is happening at the level of the firm exploring how to upgrade technological and organisational capabilities, and translating innovation into production. For industrial policy to be effective, policies must reflect an understanding of what is happening within firms and with their workers their capabilities and levels of learning. But to also understand capabilities can only develop on the shop floor if the right amount of cooperation and competition are in place.

A second and related point is the need to factor into policies the impact of the rapid pace of technological changes globally, as well as the impact of climate change on industrialisation. In terms of technological change, while this is not a new phenomenon, the ongoing development of wide-scale digitalisation applications is accelerating the pace of change.

The challenge of climate change is to balance the need to reduce carbon emissions with the imperatives of industrialisation and this needs to be at the core of industrial policy.

A third area to consider is understanding the power dynamics within global value chains: power relations within these chains often imply that the bulk of the value is captured by lead firms that can leverage a combination of direct and diffuse forms of power transmission. Firms in developing economies tend to be involved in low-value areas, so the returns are limited. Upgrading within value chains is crucial, as is the dual linking-up with global value chains while linking back with local production systems.

Another key element to effecting successful structural transformation is a proactive industrial policy the main policy process through which the state sets the terms of the social contract underpinning structural transformation. A coherent industrial policy should address the abovementioned issues head-on, in ways that support local capabilities development.

Real economic change is political

The success of industrial policy can be undermined by the fragmentation of interests and power distribution across the economy. The political economy of structural transformation is therefore about not only understanding how the state can drive and give directionality to the process of structural transformation, but also about how the state is formed and shaped by emerging interests, conflicting claims and changes in the distribution of organised power.

Our research has shown that there are cases in which unproductive interests have captured the state and limited its capacity to drive change through industrial policies.

While South Africa faces many challenges with some seeming insurmountable at present papering over the cracks in the short term is not going to bring about the desired results. If the political will is there, coupled with the commitment of key stakeholders to really dig deep to understand the needs of their sectors and what is required to move to higher productivity activities, the country could escape premature deindustrialisation and its negative outcomes. DM/MC

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Real structural transformation is needed to realise rea... - Daily Maverick

Wondering whether it is worth investing in engineering projects? Check several reasons what benefits the engineering industry already delivers to industries.

The surrounding we live in goes on evolving in a way that nobody can predict. However, we know it for sure: engineering is the key trigger of such changes. It runs the world! Skillful engineering specialists develop and generate win-win solutions that allow mankind to get ready for significant challenges of the future, regardless of whether they are resource-based or social, such as urban infrastructure planning.

The majority of modern products and services possess several elements of engineering implemented at least in their idea, leading the way to happy, healthy, and safe lives for humans under their impact. In an advanced digital environment, people strongly require engineering professionals to bring the most unbelievable ideas to life.

By using the principles of science and math, engineers design solutions to the global greatest tech challenges. Check global engineering firms in case you want to make sure that engineers can design truly tremendous engineering projects. Here, you can also hire such a team for your startup!

Desire to invest in a certain engineering project? You are on the right way! Moreover, all the above-mentioned things sound truly inspiring for entrepreneurs that consider investing in the engineering field to become a part of global innovation and digitalization. Now, we would like to mention several reasons why engineering is worth your money for you to get rid of doubts that remained.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the world economy is suffering. Big companies, small businesses, and even startups around the globe have to fire their engineering staff just because they dont have relevant financial resources. This leads to the lack of engineering force to develop something truly valuable for mankind. However, you can contribute to improving the situation by investing in engineering projects.

Your investment can save peoples lives! The point is that nowadays, a wide range of engineering companies is targeted at delivering personal protective equipment to cope with COVID-19. As proof, check a very informative article called How Engineering Companies Worldwide are Helping to Battle Covid-19. Frequently, engineers have great ideas on how to develop some innovative safety equipment but have no financial resources to bring the concept to reality. And here, your investment can come in handy.

In its origin, engineering is all about designing technology to optimize the way people live. For instance, machinery is vital when it comes to designing ventilators that are a kind of healthcare equipment. Ventilators have already saved thousands of humans this year.

Consequently, investments in projects in this sector can enrich engineers with a decent budget and, as a result, resources to generate advanced solutions to support the population worldwide. Several great examples of such investment include the financial support from Tej Kohli Philanthropy given to several robotics enterprises to contribute to optimizing the international healthcare system and grants delivered by the Lisa & Steve Altman Family Foundation for engineers to develop healthcare startups.

What does it mean for businesses when you decide to invest in their engineering projects? Here are the things that companies can do with the help of your investment in terms of smart technology:

Improve manufacturing. Digitalization ensures permanent optimizations that improve the manufacturing cycle period that leads to general company efficiency. More clear and reasonable production gives rise to minimum waste, enhancing sustainability;

Better quality. Digitalization, as well as automation, minimizes human mistakes. All business/production practices are pre-defined. Processes are controlled because they move through every step so any bug can be evaluated and momentarily corrected. The possibility to produce a solution that you can trace is the clue to success for any engineering project;

Reduced waste. When engineering specialists implement digital technology and automation, they can easily discover solution defects at the earliest design stage before release. When you reveal errors in the early days, this helps to minimize waste, get rid of withdrawals, and increase profit. Automation helps developers to minimize waste up to final product release. Just imagine what waste reduction (even for half a percent) can mean for net revenue!

Optimized agility. Smart technology can make your business more flexible in terms of required changes. For instance, it wont be a problem to optimize manufacturing effectiveness, ensuring a company to adjust to in-season demand splashes without the necessity to use reprocessing facility that halts for a large part of the year. It enables the ability to optimize agility;

Opportunity to retain personnel. It may seem strange, but smart technology provides employers with a great chance to upgrade their staff. It helps employees to get rid of learning a bigger amount of value-added tasks, fostering personnel career and wellbeing.

See the article here:

Several Reasons to Invest in Engineering Projects - FinSMEs

Governor Kathy Hochul today allocated $59 million for the new Clean Green Schools initiative, which aims to advance clean energy and energy efficiency solutions that will improve indoor air quality and reduce emissions for more than 500 public and private Pre-K-12 schools indisadvantaged communitiesacross the state.As part of the program, the State will convene education leaders this fall, including school superintendents, administrators, and educators, to inform the initiative launching in early 2022 to address climate justice issues andcreateimproved, healthierlearning environments for students. Today's announcement supports New York's nation-leading goal of an 85 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act).

"Every child deserves a clean and healthy learning environment, and this new program will help deliver that for our students, educators, and administrators in a waythat provides meaningful results and can be replicated across our state,"Governor Hochul said."I know what it's like to grow upexposed to unhealthy air, and we owe it to our children to be better than previous generations and correct these injustices."

Administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the Clean Green Schools initiative will provide technical, financial, and human resource support to help schools in underserved areas evaluate, plan for, and implement energy efficient and clean heating and cooling projects to benefit the most vulnerable New Yorkers.

The initiative will provide a range of tools, including benchmarking, energy management, indoor air quality assessments, commissioning support, student engagement in clean energy, and professional development opportunities around clean energy and sustainability, as well as two rounds of competitive incentives for clean building improvements in schools. Today's announcement was made by Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin at Enrico Fermi School in Yonkers.

"For far too long, children in New York's most underserved communities have faced persistent and inequitable exposure to air pollution often leading to disproportionate educational and health outcomes," said Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin."Today, the State is taking another significant step in addressing these inequities with the launch of our Clean Green Schools initiative which will provide school districts with the funding and resources needed to ensure safe and healthy classrooms and opportunities for job exploration and growth. "

To create a knowledge base that will help launch the program in 2022, the initiative will gather education leaders this fall to discuss opportunities through this program with energy efficiency and low carbon building experts from theGetting to Zero Forum,NYSERDAand theNew Buildings Institute (NBI).The initiativewill offer funding for services that will help schools evaluate, plan for, and facilitate energy reduction projects, clean energy projects, and indoor air quality projects and support building decarbonization projects. Additional funding will be provided to createproject-based learning opportunities to advance clean energy career pathways, internships and scholarships for students and faculty.

NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said,"This program will help improve student health and productivity by providing better air quality in schools while helping administrators lower their energy costs through energy efficiency improvements. NYSERDA is excited for the opportunity to dig in deeper with our education and clean energy partners to build this program in the most effective and efficient way for the benefit of not only today's generation of learners and educators, but for those to come."

New York State has over 6,000 public and private K-12 schools that spend approximately $1 billion in annual energy costs, which produces approximately 5.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide or other harmful greenhouse gases. Approximately 1,900 of these schools are located in disadvantaged communities across the State.

State Education Department Commissioner Betty A. Rosa said,"All children deserve to go to school in a building that is a safe, healthy and welcoming learning environment. By investing in clean energy and energy efficient solutions for our schools in underserved communities, the students in these school buildings will experience environmental sustainability firsthand."

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, "As Leader of the Senate, I commend Governor Hochul, and NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris, for this Clean Green Schools initiative. Together, we will work to improve air quality, reduce emissions, and safeguard our children's health for generations to come."

Senate Energy Committee Chair Kevin Parker said, "The Clean Green Schools initiative will ensure we are creating a safe environment for students to learn by improving the indoor air quality within their school buildings. I thank the Governor's office and NYSERDA for making schools in disadvantaged communities a priority where asthma rates are higher amongst students. This is a step in the right direction as we work towards ensuring environmental justice for everyone throughout the State."

Senator Shelley B. Mayer said, "As Chair of the Education Committee, I applaud Governor Kathy Hochul and NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris for committing to work with education stakeholders to improve indoor air quality, reduce emissions and strengthen our commitment to climate resiliency in school buildings across New York State."

Assembly Energy CommitteeChair Michael Cusick said,"As our students return to school their health and safety is our top priority. While we are focusing primarily on protecting our students from COVID, it is imperative that we also work to improve air quality in our schools. Reducing emissions and investing in energy efficiency in our school buildings will protect the well being of our students and contribute to our statewide mission of achieving our ambitious energy and climate goals."

Assembly Education Committee Chair Michael R. Benedetto said, "This is a great win for the schools, environment, and children in the State of New York. Hopefully, this is just a start in a new direction for the State for a more green and future friendly environment."

Dr. Edwin M. Quezada, Superintendent of Yonkers Public Schools, said, "There is nothing more important than a safe and healthy learning environment for students and staff. That is what we strive for every day in Yonkers. This can be challenging when 88% of our school are over 50 years old and 33% are centenarians. Yonkers' families, most importantly, Yonkers' 27,000 children of whom 77% are economically disadvantaged, welcome the opportunity to accelerate needed state of the art clean and efficient energy solutions in our schools. We appreciate that New York State is seeking input from educators to develop these solutions to improve the educational setting and enable students to thrive."

Eddie Bautista, Executive Director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, said, "Advancing green and healthy schools in underserved and frontline communities is a foundational component of addressing the impacts of climate change and the history of underinvestment in our communities and improving health and educational outcomes for our children. We are excited to see Governor Hochul and her administration start to address the needs of our communities and look forward to working with NYSERDA in the development of this initiative." Maritza Silva-Farrell, Executive Director of ALIGN, said,"The path to New York's recovery must prioritize our children and their future. The plan to invest in installation of solar panels and HVAC systems in schools located in disadvantaged communities is a step forward in the right direction. It will enhance air quality, education, and health while creating career-orientated union jobs for New Yorkers. We applaud Governor Hochul's plan to move us closer towards green healthy schools."

Jeff Vockrodt, Executive Director, Climate Jobs NY, said, "We are happy to see this important step by NYSERDA to advance school retrofits and solar power, prioritizing disadvantaged communities, and we look forward to working with the Hochul administration to ensure these projects create community-supporting, family-sustaining union jobs and careers. NYSERDA's initiative can model best-practices for energy audits, whole-building retrofits, and solar power, and investing in schools presents such an opportunity. If we retrofit all the school buildings in New York City, for example, as our Carbon Free and Healthy Schools campaign advocates, we can save schools $70 million each year in energy costs, make schools healthier and safer for kids and the school community, and create thousands of good union jobs. It's an effort that everyone -- unions, parents, teachers, students, community leaders -- can get behind."

Brian Cechnicki, Executive Director, Association of School Business Officials - NYS, said,"We are excited about the Clean Green Schools Initiative put forward today by NYSERDA. Providing clean and sustainable facilities is a central function of the business of education. Our members understand the importance of infrastructure, especially in high-need districts around the state, and improving facilities has been a long-term priority of our association. We thank NYSERDA for providing this opportunity for disadvantaged school districts, and hope this work will be a model for the future."

Rahwa Ghirmatzion, Executive Director of PUSH Buffalo, said, "Kathy Hochul seems to understand the fierce urgency of now when it comes to addressing the climate crisis. We applaud the Governor and the NYSERDA team for advancing a new program that will resource adaptation and resiliency efforts in low-income, frontline schools. It will be critical that there is transparency, accountability and community partnerships in program design and implementation at the local levels."

In addition to this effort, schools may be eligible for currently launched school-focused energy efficiency and decarbonization programs including theP-12 Schools: Benchmarking Program,P-12 Schools: Green and Clean Energy Solutions ProgramandClean Heating and Cooling Technology Screeningsthat are available at no cost to eligible schools to evaluate the installation of ground source heat pumps (GSHP), air source heat pumps (ASHP), or variable refrigerant ow (VRF) systems. NYSERDA also prioritizes improved indoor air quality and environmental sustainability through building electrification and energy efficiency improvements to improve health in a number of public and private buildings across the state through a partnership with the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

Buildings are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in New York State, and integrating energy efficiency and electrification measures in existing buildings will reduce carbon pollution and help achieve more sustainable, healthy, and comfortable buildings - with COVID-19 making indoor air quality in schools even more paramount. Through NYSERDA and utility programs, over $6.8 billion is being invested to decarbonize buildings across the State. By improving energy efficiency in buildings and including onsite storage, renewables, and electric vehicle charging equipment, the State will reduce carbon pollution and achieve the ambitious target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 TBtu by 2025, the equivalent of powering 1.8 million homes, which will result in an additional $1.8 billion in societal and environmental benefits.

Funding for this initiative will be made available throughthe Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and theState's 10-year, $5.3 billion Clean Energy Fund. More information about this funding is available on NYSERDA'swebsite.

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 $21 billion in 91 large-scale renewable 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 $1.2 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. Combined, these investments are supporting more than 150,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector in 2019, 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.

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Governor Hochul Announces $59 Million "Clean Green Schools" Initiative To Improve Air Quality And Reduce Carbon Emissions In Pre-K-12...