Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Climate Impacts and Costs

Climate Impacts and Costs Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Climate Impacts and Costs Climate change poses many costly risks to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), including increasing sea level rise, heavy rainstorms, coastal erosion and flooding, and hotter temperatures.1 Even if fossil fuel emissions and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses eventually stabil. [...] Sea Level Rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to climate change,2 as glaciers melt and ocean waters expand.3 Sea level rise poses severe risks to infrastructure along the coasts of New York and New Jersey — where relative sea level is rising faster than the global average.4 The high rate of sea level rise in the northeast U. [...] is attributed to land subsidence from natural adjustments in the earth’s mantle, extraction of groundwater from the subsurface, the melting of glaciers, and increased ocean temperatures.5 At the Battery tide gauge in Manhattan, NY, relative sea level rose approximately 3.1 mm/year in the 20th century; and between 2000 to 2022, has increased to 4.4 mm/year.6 Along the New Jersey coast, sea level is. [...] Increased moisture in the air leads to more intense rain events, which often cause massive flooding of infrastructure23 and contributes to steel corrosion.24 In August 2024, the governor of New York declared a state of emergency after a severe storm flooded communities in New York causing severe damage to roads and infrastructure.25 Over the past century, average annual precipitation and intensity. [...] Heat causes roads and sidewalks to buckle, leads to shutdowns and slow downs of trains and other public transit, warps railroad tracks, and causes electric lines to sag.45 NJ Transit and Amtrak trains have both experienced massive delays due to heat multiple times this summer from power outages, sagging wires, and overheated tracks.46 Table 1: The average seasonal increase in temperature (°F) in N.