In a ruling with sweeping implications for New York’s climate policy, an Albany trial court ordered the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC or Department) to issue long-overdue regulations under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, known as the Climate Act.[1] Enacted in 2019 and effective January 1, 2020, the statute requires a 40 percent reduction in statewide greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2030, and an 85 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050.[2]
To meet those targets, the Legislature created the Climate Action Council—a body composed of the heads of major state agencies and appointees of the Governor and Legislature—and charged it with developing a “Scoping Plan” by January 1, 2023. The plan was to serve as a road map recommending the steps necessary to achieve the Climate Act’s goals. The Scoping Plan is not self-effectuating and does not impose binding requirements on any public or private entity. Rather, the statute directs the Department to adopt regulations establishing enforceable emissions limits, performance standards, and other controls on greenhouse gases across all sectors of the state’s economy by January 1, 2024.[3]
The Council completed the Scoping Plan in December 2022. The Department, however, missed the statutory deadline. It held public workshops in 2023 and 2024, and proposed a greenhouse gas reporting rule, but ultimately failed to issue the more comprehensive climate regulations the law contemplates. In March 2025, three environmental groups filed suit in the Supreme Court, Albany County, alleging that the Department’s delay was unconstitutional.[4] They sought an injunction compelling agency rulemaking and a declaration that the delay was unconstitutional.
The Court’s Decision
The court sided with the petitioners. It held that the Climate Act’s command that the Department “shall promulgate” regulations left no room for discretion.[5] The agency’s argument—that compliance would impose “extraordinary and damaging costs upon New Yorkers”—found no traction.[6] Questions of cost and feasibility, the court observed, belong to the Legislature, not the executive branch, and if the statutory targets prove unworkable, the remedy lies in Albany, not in an agency “unilaterally determining the course of New York’s climate policy by refraining from issuing legally-mandated regulations.”[7]
The court set a firm deadline of February 6, 2026, for the Department to issue the required regulations. Because that date falls during the legislative session beginning in January 2026, it effectively gives that Department a window to raise its feasibility concerns—including its view that “the 2030 goal itself is not practically feasible due to costs consumers simply cannot bear”—to law makers, who could consider amendments to the Climate Act that address those concerns, or simply leave the statute as-is and let the chips fall where they may.
Though the court declined to reach the petitioners’ constitutional claim, its ruling signifies that courts are willing to enforce legislative climate mandates according to their terms, even when doing so threatens serious economic consequences. The ruling is expected to be appealed, and Governor Kathy Hochul has indicated she intends to meet with lawmakers to consider potential adjustments to the Climate Act in light of the decision.
Implications for Real Estate and Building Operations
The court’s decision to enforce the Climate Act has immediate practical consequences on sectors responsible for substantial emissions, particularly building operations. According to the Scoping Plan, buildings account for 32 percent of New York’s total greenhouse gas emissions.[8] Most arise from fossil fuel combustion in homes and businesses, imported fuels, and hydrofluorocarbons released from building equipment and insulation.
The Scoping Plan establishes the blueprint for “decarbonizing” building operations. Its principal strategies include:
- Reducing energy demand in residential buildings through efficiency improvements, targeting one to two million homes reliant on electric systems by 2030, and deploying heat pumps for space heating and cooling in 10 to 20 percent of commercial space statewide.
- Replacing gas-fired appliances (boilers, furnaces, and stoves) with electric alternatives such as induction stoves and electric heat pumps.[9]
- Retrofitting or constructing more than 250,000 homes annually to achieve high efficiency standards and ensure “heat pump ready” systems for heating, cooling, and hot water.
- Powering 85 percent of residential and commercial buildings by electricity rather than fossil fuels by 2050.
The Climate Act directs the Department to adopt regulations that “reflect, in substantial part,” the Scoping Plan developed by the Climate Action Council. The statute does not prescribe specific measures, leaving the Department broad discretion over the design and stringency of its rules.
That discretion carries significant implications. Aggressive standards could require building owners and developers to retrofit existing structures, phase out fossil-fuel equipment, and report emissions. A more incremental approach might initially target new construction, major renovations, or state-funded projects before expanding to the broader building stock. Either path will reshape the regulatory landscape.
Commercial property owners, developers, and asset managers would be wise to begin preparing now. Participation in public workshops, submission of written comments, and early review of building portfolios for exposure to forthcoming standards will be critical. Under the State Administrative Procedure Act, all proposed regulations must undergo a minimum 60-day comment period, and the Department must review and respond to potentially thousands of public comments before issuing final rules.
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[1] Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, § 1(1), 2019 N.Y. Sess. Laws Ch. 106 (S. 6599).
[2] ECL § 75-0107(1)(a)-(b), 75-0109(4)(a)-(b), (f).
[3] The Climate Act directs the Department to promulgate regulations that “shall … [r]eflect, in substantial part,” the Scoping Plan developed by the Climate Action Council. ECL § 75-0109(1), (2)(c). The regulations must also “[i]nclude legally enforceable emissions limits, performance standards, or measures or other requirements to control emissions from greenhouse gas emission sources” across all sectors of the economy except emissions from livestock. Id. § 75-0109(2)(b). Additionally, the regulations must “[i]nclude measures to reduce emissions from greenhouse gas emission sources that have a cumulatively significant impact on statewide greenhouse gas emissions, such as internal combustion vehicles that burn gasoline or diesel fuel and boilers or furnaces that burn oil or natural gas.” Id. § 75-0109(2)(d).
[4] Article I, Section 19 of the New York Constitution includes a provision guaranteeing that “[e]ach person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”
[5] Order at 5-6: newyorksupremecourt_clcpa_nyci__decision___order_oct2025.pdf
[6] Id. at 7.
[7] Id. at 7-8.
[8] New York State Climate Action Council Scoping Plan, New York State Climate Action Council, *175 (Dec. 2022), available at https://climate.ny.gov/-/media/Project/Climate/Files/NYS-Climate-Action-Council-Final-Scoping-Plan-2022.pdf . (“The buildings sector was the largest source of emissions in 2019, responsible for 32% of emissions statewide, which includes the combustion of fossil fuels in residential (34%) and commercial buildings (19%), emissions from imported fuels (33%), and hydrofluorocarbons released from building equipment and foam insulation (14%). The fuels used in buildings today include fossil natural gas, distillate fuel (e.g., heating fuel oil #2), wood, propane, kerosene, and residual fuel.”)
[9] Scoping Plan at 176-180