New York is in the vanguard of American cities battling climate change and leads the charge on many fronts.

In a Q&A with The Climate Group, Adam Freed, the deputy director of the New York City Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, details the city's comprehensive PlaNYC campaign and why Climate Week NYºC is so important.

Released on Earth Day 2007 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, PlaNYC lays out the city's vision for a sustainable future and the strategy to achieve it -- while also accommodating projected population growth of nearly one million people in the next 20 years.

Since PlaNYC was issued, New York City has enacted landmark legislation to increase energy efficiency in existing buildings, invested $80 million a year to reduce city government's greenhouse gas emissions, and a launched an extensive climate resilience program.

The Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability was charged with developing PlaNYC and is responsible for its implementation. Freed leads the city's resilience efforts and chairs the NYC Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, which consists of 40 city, state and federal agencies as well as private companies. The task force is identifying climate vulnerabilities to the city's critical infrastructure and developing strategies to mitigate these risks.

Here is Freed's exchange with The Climate Group:

1.    How important is the issue of climate change to Mayor Bloomberg?

The mayor has made combating climate change and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions a priority. Cities represent 75 to 80 perent of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Many of the world's densest cities are located on coastal areas that are susceptible to the urban heat island effect and sea level rise. So, it is imperative that we take proactive steps to combat climate change.

In 2007, the mayor released PlaNYC, a comprehensive long-term plan to accommodate a million more New Yorkers by 2030 while creating a greener, greater city. Through PlaNYC, we are taking concrete steps to reduce the impact that we have on the environment, so that we can accommodate that growth in a sustainable manner.

2.    What is PlaNYC?

PlaNYC is a comprehensive plan to meet ten long-term goals central to our city's economic, environmental, and social health while facing the challenges of aging infrastructure and climate change. Many of the initiatives within PlaNYC are actually the common sense solutions that people can do. We help provide the information and the framework to enable these changes. For example, we recently enacted landmark legislation to require ongoing energy efficiency in large buildings, which will reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Such legislation can result in investments and new jobs while saving people money. So it's really the synergies between all of those things that help drive PlaNYC.

3.    What's the mayor's vision for cutting emissions in New York City?

Our goal is to reduce our citywide greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. And, because we believe government should lead by example, we have pledged to reduce municipal government's emissions 30 percent by 2017.

Next Page: How Climate Week NYºC can make a difference.