Leaders within the largest city in the United States, and one of the most influential in the world, recognize the daunting challenges resulting from New York City’s vulnerability to climate change—evidenced already in violent storms, flooding, and rising sea levels—as well as the economic opportunity that comes in combating the negative impacts of that change and reducing the city’s contributions to further temperature rise.

The press release for the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) opens in what has become a tradition for environmental reporting: a dire statistic intended to inspire a desire for action.