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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, our climate story of the week, which we're doing every Tuesday on the show this year. According to AccuWeather, January of 2023 was the warmest January on record for New York City with average temperatures sitting around 43.5 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a whopping 10 degrees above normal. Given these temperatures and our lack of significant snowfall so far, the effects of climate change are hard to miss, right? Although we're currently in the dead of winter, we figured we would look ahead and prepare for a possibly sweltering summer.

Here's how. Last week, a study evaluating New York City's mass air-conditioning distribution program known as Get Cool NYC was released in the Journal of Urban Health. According to the authors, Get Cool NYC succeeded in staving off heat illness for older New Yorkers who participated in this 2020 program. It was in the summer of 2020. In doing so, Get Cool NYC proves air-conditioning access is critical to achieving climate justice as cities in particular get hotter and hotter. It's an equity and environmental justice program for people who can't afford air conditioning in our ever-hotter world.

With us now to discuss Get Cool NYC, the implications, and the recently released study of the program are Kizzy Charles-Guzman, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice here in the city. We also have Cari Olson, the assistant commissioner of environmental surveillance and policy at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She is a co-author of the aforementioned study, Extreme Heat and COVID-19 in New York City. Kizzy and Cari, thanks so much for coming on. Welcome to WNYC.

Kizzy Charles-Guzman: Hi, Brian. Good morning.

Brian Lehrer: Can we just talk about some of the basics? Cari, since you're one of the co-authors of the study, Extreme Heat and COVID-19 in New York City, what prompted you and the other authors to study these seniors in particular?

Cari Olson: Sure. Well, we're really excited about this evaluation coming out because it really showed that this program that was an unprecedented effort on the part of the city during COVID to help New Yorkers really did support our participants who are low-income older adults stay home safely during hot weather. What we did was, first of all, we looked at the reach of the program and we successfully reached every neighborhood in the city.

In particular, we had installation rates that were higher in the neighborhoods that we know have the greatest vulnerability to heat-related deaths. Those are neighborhoods that ranked higher on our heat vulnerability index, and also those that were suffering from the greatest burden from the COVID-19 pandemic. We really see that we were supporting our seniors.

When we surveyed participants and then compared them with comparison group who did not have an air conditioner in the summer, we learned that our participants were much more likely to stay home and be comfortable in the heat. They were less likely to feel sick due to the heat while they were at home. This really is showing us that as we move forward as a city and are thinking about climate change adaptation efforts that are going to center public health and equity, as you said, we need to think about air-conditioning access.

Brian Lehrer: Kizzy, I guess the summer of 2020 was such an extreme natural experiment in a certain kind of way.

Kizzy Charles-Guzman: Yes, that's right.

Brian Lehrer: Because less we forget, the summer wasn't only the first months of COVID. It was locked down to the extent that the group cooling centers in New York City were closed. There was a real burden on poor people who depended on those cooling centers on hot summer days, right?

Kizzy Charles-Guzman: Yes, that's absolutely right. Brian, I just want to say that, ultimately, we know that as the climate warms and as our cities which, again, have so many dark surfaces that trap heat, people are disproportionately impacted indoors. We tend to think that outdoor risk is where it's at when it comes to extreme heat and vulnerability, but really, it's people inside of their apartments baking without access to this life-saving medical piece of equipment, which is an air conditioner. Everybody perceive it as a luxury. Ultimately, we know that we have to have a significant investment and realignment of our spending into these high-risk areas and be able to ensure that we have equitable cooling access for New Yorkers.

Brian Lehrer: Cari, can you talk a bit about the demographics of those who participated in your study? Who are they and where do they live?

Cari Olson: Sure, so the way this study was designed, we were focused on the participants of Get Cool. These were older adults, 60 years of age and older, who were low-income across the city. We had a sample of those who participated in our survey. Then in addition, we spoke to a group of older adults who are not quite as old, so they would not be eligible for the program. Just below 60 years old who were ineligible and did not have an air conditioner. We compare those two groups to understand exactly as Kizzy said, how did having this life-saving device help them through the summer?

Brian Lehrer: Kizzy, just to exemplify for people how dangerous heat can be in the summer, according to statistics published in the news organization, The City, last summer was the worst year for heat-related emergency room visits in New York City since 2018, a reported 13% increase just from 2021 to 2022. What are common heat-related illnesses that people experience and who is most at risk?

Kizzy Charles-Guzman: Most at risk are older adults, but also people that have chronic health conditions. Whether that is cardiovascular disease, respiratory issues, mental health conditions, those that abuse alcohol or drugs, they can be more prone to experiencing heat illness. That can look like dehydration. That can look as serious as heat stroke, right? There are a slew of effects in between that might cause somebody to go to the emergency room because they're not feeling well.

Heat is exacerbating their underlying medical condition. What we're trying to do with the city is really address the variety of ways that we can cool down our neighborhood, right? We're planting more trees and heat vulnerable areas. We just announced $112 million of tree planting investments in these high-heat vulnerability areas. We're putting in cool roofs to ensure that buildings are trapping and absorbing a little bit less heat.

Again, access to equitable cooling is also a critical component. We're just so thrilled that the study is helping us to document, which is really common sense, which is that when we are indoors, the temperature can be much hotter just because of the building's thermal inertia like the ability of a building to just trap heat indoors and the fact that people are not using fans properly or don't have access to air conditioner because they're really concerned about the electricity bill.

Brian Lehrer: Does this fit in, Cari, to a set of conditions since this is framed as a climate justice issue, a set of issues that make lower-income communities of color more affected by the warming climate than a lot of other people?

Cari Olson: Yes, definitely. As we look at the different economic and social disparities and equities across our city, we see that climate change and the health burdens of climate change fall more heavily on low-income communities and communities of color. We also know that in addition to everything that Kizzy just went through and as we've been discussing, the number one risk in New York City for heat-related illness and death is not having residential cooling.

Exactly that risk that we've been talking about. We know that non-Hispanic, Black New Yorkers actually have disproportionately higher rates of heat stress and heat-exacerbated death. They're facing this greater risk because of the structural racism and inequities that mean that they actually have the lowest rates of access to air conditioning in the city.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we have time for a few phone calls. We're in our climate story of the week, which we're doing every Tuesday on The Brian Lehrer Show. This year, we're talking about the program in New York City called Get Cool NYC. It's an environmental justice program that was studied closely in the COVID summer of 2020 when a lot of the cooling centers were closed, and in which the city gave air conditioners to a lot of elderly low-income New Yorkers.

We're talking about this with Kizzy Charles-Guzman, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, and Cari Olson, the assistant commissioner of, I'd love this, although I'm a little suspicious of this title of yours, environmental surveillance and policy at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and she is co-author of the study, Extreme Heat and COVID-19 in New York City, in which they documented more positive health outcomes that summer for seniors with air conditioning than without.

Our phone number, if you have an air-conditioning-and-environmental-justice-in-a-warming-world question or comment, is 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer. Kizzy and Cari, we're getting a number of calls already asking a version or two of basically the same question. I'm going to let Andrew in Brooklyn represent those callers. Andrew, you're on WNYC. Thank you for calling in today.

Andrew: Oh, hello. Thank you. This is maybe more of a science than a climate justice question, but is air conditioning like a net gain or loss for the climate? They just pump out heat from interiors and put it out into the environment. I know we have to have it in a hospital or a library or something maybe, but does anybody know if that's true? I've heard this apocryphal urban legend story that air conditioning, there's so many of them, they're making the city hotter through their exhaust. I'll take my answer off the air.

Brian Lehrer: Andrew, thank you very much. Well, I hear two questions in there. Let's take the one that he ended on first. Cari, do you want this? Does air conditioning overall make the city, at least the outdoor air, hotter because of all the exhaust?

Cari Olson: Yes, I really appreciate this question because I think it comes up a lot when we're thinking about how we adapt the climate. The reality is that air conditioning, exactly as the caller was pointing out, is literally a lifesaver, right? We know that about 90% of New York City households already have air conditioning and it's primarily less likely for low-income households and people of color to have access to air conditioning. The first thing that I really want to emphasize is that we can't look at this and say we shouldn't be extending this specific protection to everybody and still be pursuing, really, a thoughtful and equitable approach to climate change.

The concerns are not insurmountable, right? Increases in energy use from air conditioning. It's true. They do use air conditioner or they do use energy, of course, and they do produce waste heat, but we can use new technologies that will reduce greenhouse gases. We can offset through responsible use so that we reduce the use of wasteful air conditioning, which we can see when we super cool our businesses and office buildings in the summer.

We also recommend that everybody, when it's hot outside, they should use their A/C. You can set it to 78 degrees or the low-cool setting, which will help protect yourself, be safe. It'll help you save money, which we know is a huge concern for many New Yorkers, and it will protect our power grid. As we're doing this transition, we do need to think about this and we're going to be the-- Kizzy can talk about so many things that the city is doing to transition to cleaner fuels. We do need this and the net gain is saving lives every summer.

Brian Lehrer: When we talk about policy responses to global warming, Kizzy, I guess there are two main buckets. One is mitigation, that is trying to prevent future warming.

Kizzy Charles-Guzman: That's right.

Brian Lehrer: The other is adaptation, trying to make it possible to live with the warming that's covered and they can come in conflict with each other.

Kizzy Charles-Guzman: If we do this right, they're actually complementary. Ultimately, the city is leading the charge in building policy that is making our buildings more energy-efficient. We're trying to put our money where our mouth is by encouraging buildings to transition away from dirtier fuels, right? We phased out the use of the most polluting heating well in the city, which is left to at over 95% improvement in air emissions. We are continuing that, right? We need the apartments to be weatherized and better insulated.

We need heat pumps instead of the decades-old air-conditioning technology that is spewing that heat that the caller was referencing. I think, ultimately, climate requires an all-hands-on-deck approach and it goes beyond just the cool roof. The trees were also doing a lot of work to buildings to bring them up to code so that we can actually use the least impactful strategy to keep people alive. Ultimately, city government's job here is to keep New Yorkers safe and that's what we're doing.

Brian Lehrer: Mohammed in Mineola, you're on WNYC. Hey, Mohammed.

Mohammed: Hi, I was wondering if, just an idea, the city could maybe help landlord install at least one air conditioning in every apartment. They can provide maybe a tax break or a grant to landlords, so they can provide at least one air conditioning. They can put that in maybe the living room per apartment.

Brian Lehrer: Thanks for having the imagination to take the thought that far. Before we get an answer from our guests, Joseph in the East Village, I think, has a related question or suggestion. Joseph, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Joseph: Good morning. Yes, I agree. Also, it should be a part of the maintenance of the rent. If you're going to retrofit NYCHA buildings, it should be one system where the tenant controls the thermostat because they might be concerned about how much the electric bill is and not use the air conditioning or not adjust the heat, whichever system that they put in. These new split systems they have are very effective, the heat pump, and it'll create less emissions compared to putting one unit in each building.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. All right, thank you. Let's take each piece of those two calls, Kizzy, for you as an appointee of the mayor for environmental justice. I've had this question myself before. We require landlords to provide heat in the winter. That's a law. Why don't we require landlords to provide air conditioning in the summer?

Kizzy Charles-Guzman: Many buildings in the city are not-- The electrical systems in those buildings can't really support the widespread utilization of the window units. However, we absolutely agree with you that there should be a maximum temperature standard for the city. It's something that we're taking very seriously and working through. I think, ultimately, we want to start to see the buildings transition into more efficient, greener buildings. We have set up a program called the New York City Accelerator, where building owners, building managers, landlords, even residents can contact the accelerator.

They can receive technical assistance. They can do building-level assessments and then they are connected to sources of incentives. For example, Con Edison and NYSERDA does provide the kinds of financial incentives that allow a building owner to implement heat pump technology or other energy efficiency measures at the building level. We're doing that to try to meet our Local Law 97 goals, which, of course, are ultimately about helping to decarbonize our buildings and make them more energy-efficient. Energy efficiency is a huge part of that.

Brian Lehrer: This is WNYC FM HD and AM New York, WNJT-FM 88.1 Trenton, WNJP 88.5 Sussex, WNJY 89.3 Netcong, and WNJO 90.3 Toms River. We are New York and New Jersey Public Radio and live streaming at wnyc.org. Few more minutes on our climate story of the week. We're doing those every Tuesday on The Brian Lehrer Show this year. This time, it's about New York City's program of handing out air conditioners to some low-income people to stave off heat-related illness or even death in the summer in our warming world with our two representatives from New York City government.

Cari saw that the second part of the question that we got there or Kizzy was just answering Mohammed's question about tax incentives or something for landlords. Joseph's question from the East Village specifically about NYCHA was since that is public housing and it's the city's responsibility, why shouldn't air conditioning be installed in every NYCHA apartment and the electricity for it not left to the individuals who are low income by definition to have to worry about their electricity bills for?

Cari Olson: Yes, I really appreciate the caller's focus on the fact that the air conditioner or the unit is not enough, right? You also need to be able to turn it on and energy is expensive. We did find in our evaluation that many of New Yorkers reported that they have issues with the cost of not only getting an air conditioner but also running it. NYCHA actually was an amazing partner in the Get Cool effort in 2020 and actually installed over 16,000 air conditioners in residences at NYCHA and is thinking a lot about different ways to further adapt their campuses and their housing to the climate.

The other thing that I want to just mention is while we as a city are working on all of the policy initiatives and strategies that Kizzy was describing, we also want to make sure that New Yorkers are aware of an existing program that can help them get an air conditioner if they should need it. This would be folks who are living in public housing or otherwise. It's the Home Energy Assistance Program, which is state-administered but federally-funded program. We're starting usually in early May.

New Yorkers for the cooling assistance can apply for an air conditioner, which will be bought for them and installed. One of the big pushes that we are doing with our partners at the state is to try to work toward expanding that program so that it will also cover utility bills and provide a utility benefit in the summer to help run those air conditioners. That's available in the winter months for heating assistance through heat or Home Energy Assistance Program but currently not in the summer months. That's another step that we need to take to try to reduce the energy burden that so many New Yorkers are facing.

Brian Lehrer: One more on landlord responsibilities and this is a story, it looks like, from Bee in Harlem. Bee, you're on WNYC. Thank you for calling in.

Bee: Hi there. I was calling because this is really important to me. I live in a rent-stabilized apartment and I've been here my entire life. I live with my mother and she had health concerns. These last few summers have been very difficult on her. A few years ago, I got some money together and brought in an electrician. I asked the landlord for permission to upgrade our wiring because we couldn't even find an A/C because we would have shorted out our entire apartment.

Brian Lehrer: Wow.

Bee: I asked my landlord, "I'll pay for it, but I need to help my mom." He took us to court. Now, we had to pay for an attorney and everything.

Brian Lehrer: He took you to court?

Bee: He took us to court when I asked to upgrade the wiring and pay for it because he's just that kind of seller guy. The judge and the landlord's attorney was like, "If anything happens to this woman heat-related, you're going to be on the hook and her daughter will owe you." They ended up giving us a court SIP and he installed an A/C unit in my mom's room, which is what I was asking, and one in the front room.

It took so much work and not everybody has the means to go back and forth to court and everything like that. It's not just about having the air conditioner. It's not just being able to afford the bill. It's also having the infrastructure in your apartment to even be able to run one. Somebody could have given me a most beautiful A/C, but it would have done us no good because our apartment would have literally been in blackness because our wiring was that bad.

Brian Lehrer: What an important story.

Bee: He recorded everything--

Brian Lehrer: Bee, thank you for sharing it and please call us again. We live in a world where landlords have to provide heat in the winter, but in the summer, the best that the city can provide, I guess, besides these programs that you've been talking about is to offer people access to congregate cooling centers. Kizzy, why don't you end this by giving us any reaction to Bee's story and also telling people how they can apply if someone they know might qualify for a city government-given air conditioner for a low-income person for this summer?

Kizzy Charles-Guzman: Yes. First of all, Bee, I just want to say that I'm very sorry that you have to go through that. That sounds like a terrible situation to be in. Ultimately, the city of New York takes exactly those situations very seriously. We know that our building stock is old and needs updating so that it is able to keep people safe indoors. That's the bottom line.

We are implementing the building emission law, Local Law 97. That is very scary to everyone. Ultimately, it is about bringing buildings into compliance with better and greener energy systems that then allows for this kind of equipment to actually protect people. I think, ultimately, this takes time, right? retrofitting buildings is expensive and laborious work, but we are getting that work done.

Again, I encourage landlords, building managers, residents to volunteer their buildings, to go to the New York City accelerators, and easy Google Search "New York City Accelerator." We're able to provide technical assistance and information on programs that exist to help landlords come into compliance with Local Law 97 and energy efficiency incentives.

Lastly, for residents, the HEAP program that Cari mentioned is absolutely a viable alternative to be able to purchase an air conditioner in the summer. The program is open starting in May, I believe. The easiest way to find information about that is to call 311. I know that's an unsatisfying answer, but we can route you to the appropriate agency to connect you to those resources.

Brian Lehrer: It's also a good answer because it's easy to remember, 311.

Kizzy Charles-Guzman: 311, that's right.

Brian Lehrer: Kizzy Charles-Guzman, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, and Cari Olson, the assistant commissioner of environmental surveillance, which has nothing to do with Chinese spy balloons, and policy at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in New York City. Thank you both so much for joining us for an important climate story of the week. Thank you very, very much.

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