Climate Chief for a City
From a child interested in history to an adult interested in the challenges of planning for one of the world’s largest cities to cope with climate change, he maintains a positive but realistic attitude.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
Rohit Aggarwala (RA) is an Indian American, born in White Plains, New York.
(Editor’s note: When information is available regarding the careers of RA’s parents and whether they provided either direct or indirect influence for his career path, this story will be updated accordingly.)
CHILDHOOD
(Editor’s note: The sources for this career story did not include any information about RA’s childhood experiences which may have led him to his eventual adult career assessing and planning for climate change. The editor will try to find contact information for RA to forward this edition of his story while requesting the opportunity for further information to advise readers about all the influences involving RA’s journey to his eventual career path plus challenges along the way.)
EDUCATION
RA earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Columbia University (NY City), before going on to earn his Masters in Philosophy and Ph.D. in history as well as an M.B.A., all from Columbia over a span of ten years. He also earned a Master’s degree in Canadian history from Queen’s University at Kingston.
At Columbia, RA was a reporter for the Columbia Daily Spectator and president of a college political group.
FIRST JOBS ARE NEVER A BINDING CAREER COMMITMENT
RA began his adult working career in The Federal Railroad Administration, later working for McKinsey & Company, a consulting business, followed by stints with the New York State Assembly and Virginia Railway Express before moving into public service work.
PUBLIC SERVICE CAREER COMMENCES
Through his work with elected representatives and their staff of the New York State Assembly, RA became known for working with many types of personalities, his ability to study new concepts and offer ideas involving critical thinking. These traits led to RA being appointed by the then Mayor of New York City (Michael Bloomberg) to a new Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, where RA served as Director for four years, helping to author the “PlaNYC” blueprint for environmental sustainability for the city.
The mayor was sufficiently pleased with RA’s work that he asked RA to head the sustainability practice division of the mayor’s private charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, where he served as Chair of several committees to develop regional planning for climate related issues.
Having helped to launch environmental planning in the New York City area, RA was lured by Canadian officials to lead a high-profile, smart city-building project in Toronto, Canada, which unfortunately was cancelled due to stakeholders’ disagreements, privacy concerns and the Covid-19 pandemic, causing his exit from the company.
New York area leaders took advantage of the cancellation of RA’s work commitments in Canada to bring RA back to the U.S. East Coast, where he was named Senior Urban Tech Fellow at Cornell Tech. RA is the leader author of the “Rebooting NYC” report, which proposed urban technology solutions to New York City’s biggest climate change challenges.
RA was also appointed as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where he teaches urban policy.
In January 2022, RA was appointed by incoming Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, to serve as Chief Climate Officer and Commissioner of The New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
ASSESSING AND PLANNING FOR CLIMATE CHALLENGES
“We are in a climate change emergency,” said RA in the summer of 2023, adding “Two things are unhelpful in an emergency: panic and despair. You can’t let yourself dwell on those things, or else you can’t make progress.”
RA notes that the annual hurricane season (traditionally August through November), has recently seen increased numbers of intense storms, any one of which may pose a very serious, climate-related problem, especially to highly populated areas. “But” said RA, “Heat waves kill a lot more people than hurricanes do. So, I think those are the two extreme weather scenarios for concern. A third is a massive rainfall event.”
Related to those concerns, RA says the city’s biggest infrastructure challenges are two:
- The coastal and storm water defenses we must build. The first place flood water goes is down the drain, so there’s a combined need to think about how you keep the water out and how you manage the water that falls – all of which requires a multibillion-dollar, multi-decade long effort.
Unfortunately, the climate has changed and is changing faster than we know how to build big engineering projects. Along with the New York-New Jersey Harbor and Tributaries Study and involvement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, we’ll find solutions though present estimates are at least 20 years to build (effective defenses.)
- Upgrading all our buildings over 25,000 square feet to do retrofits to reduce carbon emissions and improve their resilience – to establish a maximum indoor temperature, which will require mandating air conditioning.
PROJECTING CONFIDENCE HELPS OTHERS TO SHARE YOUR VISION
In RA’s optimistic perspective, New York City has “every advantage in its DNA. Density is a pro-environment decision. Density helps us because it enables walking and biking and transit. Even for people who drive, they are driving shorter distances. In an apartment building, we are sharing energy; the apartment above you is part of your insulation plan.”
“We also live in a fantastic ecosystem. If you think about what we’ve seen over the last several years in the New York harbor – the whales, dolphins, seahorses – it’s amazing. The hawks and owls and other birds are back. The environment here has gotten so much better than it was 30 or 40 years ago.”
CAREER SATISFACTION
Studying history during his formal education, RA understands – per an old adage – “The only constant is change” and that keeping a positive attitude toward the potential to effect change, is the best path for planning to deal with significant problems affecting current lives and future generations worldwide.
To have your judgment respected by appointments to leadership in dealing with one of the world’s most significant issues – climate change – is surely cause for at least quiet career satisfaction while your visible plans will often take time – beyond your lifetime – to complete.
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This career story is based on several sources including a news article written by Hilary Howard, published by The New York Times on September 17, 2023, plus internet research.
