Climate Planning

Climate Vulnerability, Adaptation & Resilience 

Irvington's Government Operations Climate Action Plan (GOCAP) identifies municipal emissions and outlines strategies for their reduction. The Vulnerability Assessment, along with Adaptation and Resilience planning, focuses on enhancing our preparedness for future climate challenges.

Extreme weather and natural hazards are causing serious damage to our communities, environment, and infrastructure. Hudson Valley communities have faced severe flooding from storms like Irene, Sandy and Ida. Climate and environmental conditions are expected to worsen significantly, with more intense storms, droughts and heat waves, sea level rising in the Hudson River and native ecosystems collapsing. Communities must prepare for these impacts to ensure their safety and resilience.  Proactive planning and risk mitigation are crucial to protect people, infrastructure, and habitat, and can serve as a model for others. 

Neighborhood Communication Nodes 

Historically, communities where neighbors know each other have fared the best in times of disaster. As part of Irvington's Climate Action, Adaptation & resilience Planning, and correlating Emergency Preparedness, Irvington Green is mapping and creating Village neighborhood communication channels. Tell us about your neighborhood. 

Please take our 5 minute  survey at https://bit.ly/IrvingtonNeighbors

Please note, all data collected will be accessed only by the Irvington Climate Committee for the purpose of networking mapping and mutual aid building. The data will be stored on a Google Drive. For any questions or concerns, please contact Sustainabilty Director Charlotte Binns cbinns@irvingtonny.gov

Background Assessments and Plans 

***CVA & Adaptation Plan Presentation published

Starting February 8, 2024, the Climate Planning Committee embarked on CAPI Adapt, a yearlong process to create a Climate Vulnerability Assessment and a Climate Adaptation Chapter for the Climate Action Plan. 

See our Vulnerability Assessment & Adaptation Plan as presented to the Board of Trustees.  A final version of this presentation and full length report are due to be presented in Q2 2025. 

Community Resilience Building Workshops

In addition to a flood study, the Villages of Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Sleepy Hollow, and Tarrytown participated in a  Community Resilience Building Workshop in March of 2020, to identify key vulnerabilities. Find the report here. Find the Community Building Risk Matrix summary here.

In 2024, the village completed a Climate Smart Resiliency Planning (CSRP) assessment to determine gaps in policy and plans. The results can be found here.  See additional Village assessments and plans at the bottom of this page. 

Hazard Mitigation Planning

Westchester County offers tools to assess and plan for hazards. See: 

The County  Hazard Mitigation Plan 

The Irvington Hazarad Mitigation Chapter

An interactive hazard Story Map

A FEMA Resilience and Planning Tool

Team: Green Policy Task Force volunteers 

Warwick Norton, Nicola Coddington, and Sustainabilty Director Charlotte Binns and Village Administrator Larry Schopfer

Government Operations Climate Action Planning 

Irvington’s vision is to lead by example through sustainable improvements to municipal buildings, operations, properties and community assets to mitigate greenhouse gasses, sequester carbon and build resilience in a changing climate. We are dedicated to understanding and mitigating climate-related risks while preparing our infrastructure for extreme weather events. 

Irvington Municipal Emissions Reductions Goal

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states we must reduce global emissions by 50% by 2030 and reach climate neutrality by 2050 to achieve the Paris Agreement commitment of keeping warming below 1.5°C Equitably reducing global emissions by 50% requires that high-emitting, wealthy nations reduce their emissions by more than 50%. Irvington commits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels 50% by 2030 and is endeavoring to exceed these goals as a model of fair. 

Irvington has joined an increasing number of local governments committed to addressing climate change at the local level through reducing emissions in their own government operations and by supporting programs such as Climate Smart Communities, Clean Energy Communities, EnergySmart Homes, and Grid Rewards. In 2007, Irvington created a Climate Protection Task Force to study the problem and make recommendations, resulting in a 2008 report that formed the basis for a number of subsequent Village actions. In 2012, the Board of Trustees adopted the Climate Smart Pledge and in 2014 adopted an Environmental Action Plan, prepared by the Green Policy Task Force, consisting of action items based on the principles embodied in the Pledge. The Village’s 2018 update of its 2003 Comprehensive Plan–an update based on the work of a group of subcommittees broadly representative of the community–incorporated this Environmental Action Plan as one of its references, and included a number of recommendations related to climate change and sustainability. 

Irvington is worked with CAPI, the Climate Action Planning Institute, an initiative of ICLEI, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, the Hudson Valley Regional Council and  the County, and 8 other Westchester municipalities to create a Climate Action Plan (CAP). The first meeting was held Feb 2, 2023 and the process took 16 months.  A summary and comparison of municipal results can be found here. Irvington had he highest municipal emissions per population. 

As the first step in creating a Climate Action Plan, Irvington has collected and analyzed the data for the Irvington Government Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report. A simplified slidedeck was presented to the Village Board of Trustees on Aug 16, 2023 (which can be watched here from :47). After meeting with Department Heads, a preliminary overview of mitigation strategies was assembled in a presentation deck for the Board of Trustees, on 12/18/2023 (which you can watch here, from 1:15).  Irvington Green hosted a Climate Plan Workshop with the public on March 6th 2024, (photos and slidedeck can be found by scrolling down the Events page here). Following this, the Government Operations Climate Action Plan, or GOCAP, was presented to the Village Board on April 10th 2024. The presentation can be found here (and the meeting can be seen here from 44:17). The final Government Operations Climate Action Plan was adopted June 17th 2024. 

With similar guidance from CAPI, the Village created a Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory which identifies and quantifies the sources of GHG emissions from community activities and establishes a baseline from which future emissions reductions and progress can be measured. See more detail below. A Community Climate Action Plan is forthcoming. 

Finally, the Village is currently working with CAPI on a Climate Adaptation and Resilience chapter of the Climate Action Plan (CAP). 

Community Emissions Report

Municipal surveys, maps, reports and plans