New York State is undertaking the most ambitious effort in the U.S. to meet the challenge of climate change. New York’s Climate Act recognizes that climate change doesn’t affect all communities equally. The Climate Act charged the Climate Justice Working Group (CJWG) with the development of criteria to identify disadvantaged communities to ensure that frontline and otherwise underserved communities benefit from the state’s historic transition to cleaner, greener sources of energy, reduced pollution and cleaner air, and economic opportunities.

On December 13, 2021, the CJWG voted to release the draft disadvantaged communities criteria for public comment, in addition to an interactive map and a list of disadvantaged communities statewide. March 9, 2022, marked the beginning of a 120-day public comment period for New Yorkers to provide feedback on the draft, which was extended to August 5, 2022. The CJWG voted to approve and adopt the final disadvantaged communities criteria during a meeting on March 27, 2023.

A fact sheet on the final criteria will be translated and, along with an interactive map and final report, will be made available online as soon as practicable.

How to Navigate the Map

When loading the map, users will be taken to a layer that shows census tracts in New York State. Tracts identified as disadvantaged communities are shaded purple. Additionally, users can toggle to the individual indicator layers by selecting "individual indicator" layers to the right. This will produce a drop-down table where users can pick a single indicator and the map will dynamically update to the percentile values of the selected indicator. Note – disadvantaged communities are not scored on individual indicators but a combination of all of them (see the "Technical Documentation" for more detail).

Users can zoom in and out of areas and/or pan using the tools on the left toolbar. Indicators are grouped by their associated factor, and within each factor category the indicators are listed alphabetically.

Users can also select a census tract that will bring up a table of all indicators' percentile values within a census tract below the map. These indicators are sorted by factor and value. By selecting that census tract again, users can clear their current search.