Bloomberg unveils $20 billion climate change mitigation plan

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week unveiled a US$19.5 billion climate change mitigation plan, seven months after superstorm Sandy devastated the U.S. East Coast.

The plan will see a series of 20-foot waterfront walls and dikes built to prevent flooding of the kind that the city experienced as a result of the October 2012 storm.

The storm claimed 43 lives in New York andthe total U.S. death toll was approximately 120. It caused havoc to infrastructure and knocked out over half of Manhattan's power grid for several days, paralyzed transport networks and caused millions of dollars in damage in coastal areas.

Bloomberg announced the plan as he released an extensive study on the risks that climate change entails for New York.

The mayor warned that in 2050, a disaster similar to the storm of 2012 could have even more serious consequences. He said it is projected that a quarter of the city will be in areas prone to flooding.

It has been estimated that Sandy cost New York US$19 billion in damages and lost economic activity and a similarly destructive disaster could cost around US$90 billion by mid-century.

The new plan is targeted at safeguarding New York's 835 kilometers of coastline as there are around 400,000 people living in flood risk areas, where a total of 270,000 jobs are vulnerable.

Since 2009, experts have predicted that coastal waters around New York could rise as much as 12 centimeters by 2020. and eight per cent of coastal areas could be regularly flooded, simply due to normal high tides.

By 2050, temperatures could regularly exceed 32 degrees Celsius over nearly two months of every year.

The plan also calls for reinforcement or creation of dunes along vulnerable coastlines in Staten Island, Brooklyn and the Rockaways.

Construction will be carried out with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers and financing will come from a combination of city funding and federal relief money.