After Dearth Of Climate Leadership In Albany, 38 NY Climate And Community Groups Join To Unveil “Climate Can’t Wait”

Today, 38 organizations across New York State announced the formation of Climate Can’t Wait 2022, and unveiled their package of priority proposals for action in 2022 by the Legislature, the Governor and state agencies. After two years without significant climate action in Albany, the groups highlighted that the climate emergency has only accelerated, with increased extreme heat, fires, storms and floods, culminating in Hurricane Ida which took the lives of 42 New Yorkers in 2021.

At a press conference announcing the legislative package endorsement, groups called on the New York State Legislature, Governor Hochul and state agencies to fulfill the promises of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and listen to the thousands of New Yorkers who support bold climate policies and recently voted to make access to clean air, clean water and a healthy environment a constitutional right for all New Yorkers.

The group called on legislative leadership to pass 11 bills and take action to fund and implement the CLCPA, necessary to combat climate change.

The Climate Can’t Wait 2022 advocacy agenda consists of:

• All Electric Building Act (A8431, Gallagher; S6843, Kavanagh)
• CLCPA Implementation By State Agencies and $15 Billion Funding for Climate Justice in the 2022 Budget
• Clean Futures Act (A6761, Mamdani; S5939, Ramos)
• Climate and Community Investment Act (A6967, Cahill; S4264, Parker)
• Cryptocurrency Mining Moratorium (A7389, Kelles; S6486C, Parker)
• Cumulative Impacts Act (A2103, Pretlow; S1031B, Stewart-Cousins)
• Energy Efficiency, Equity and Jobs (A3996, Hunter; S3126, Parker)
• Fossil Fuel Subsidy Elimination Act (A8483, Cahill; S7438, Krueger)
• Green New Deal For New York Act
• New York Build Public Renewables Act (A1466, Carroll; S6453, Parker)
• Renewable Capitol Act
• Teachers’ Fossil Fuel Divestment Act (A6331, Kelles; S4783, Brisport)

Climate Can’t Wait activists are holding additional rallies today in New York City and Westchester County, calling on Governor Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to pass the advocacy agenda with haste.

“We can’t say it enough — we are running out of time. Climate can’t wait and neither can we,” said Food & Water Watch New York Organizer Emily Skydel. “We are demanding bold leadership from our legislative leaders and Governor Hochul, right now. We must pass and enact the Climate Can’t Wait 2022 agenda, which would ban fossil fuels in buildings, cryptocurrency mining, and power plants; invest in jobs and climate justice, and stop the flow of public money to the fossil fuel industry that’s spurring on the climate crisis.”

“The nation and the whole world has eyes on New York, looking to see if we will continue to build off of the landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and follow the wisdom and leadership of frontline, environmental justice communities disproportionately impacted by a racialized and gendered climate crisis they had little hand in creating” said Anthony Rogers-Wright, NY Renews Steering Committee member and Director of Environmental Justice with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “There’s no time for specious or rhetorical approaches to climate change — we must engender and fund New York’s Just Transition post haste while holding polluters accountable for decades of systemic environmental racism. The Climate Can’t Wait package is the vehicle and we need our lawmakers to do their job and drive it across the finish line.”

“Citizen Action is working to mobilize tens of thousands of New Yorkers with Climate Can’t Wait to bring the message to our state leaders to get serious about the climate in 2022,” said Ivette Alfonso, President of Citizen Action of New York. “Hurricane Ida in 2021, Hurricane Isaias, which left over 800,000 New Yorkers without power in 2020, and Sandy in 2012 all demonstrate that climate change is a crisis in the here and now, wreaking havoc on our state’s infrastructure and our economy. And, we can’t ignore the needs of Black and Brown communities, who are so often first in line when it comes to environmental pollution and last in line when it comes to getting the jobs and public funding necessary to build healthy communities. Climate leaders are advancing a unified agenda on climate in 2022, and Governor Hochul, state agencies and the Legislature have the responsibility to act on it.”

“In 2021 there were three one-hundred-year climate events in five weeks including tropical storm Fred that caused flooding across New York City, Hurricane Henri which pummeled Long Island with heavy rain, and Hurricane Ida which forced most of the subway system to shut down with many stations flooded and at least 43 people dead, mostly from drowning in basement apartments. Sadly, at the current rate of addressing climate change, we will leave our grandchildren a dystopian future mirroring ‘The Walking Dead’ with inadequate air, water and limited arable land. Climate Can’t Wait’s a package of bills will help in the effort to leave a viable planet for posterity. The Renewable Capital Act is an important symbolic step toward building a just and renewable future, and it will protect the environmental justice neighborhood of Sheridan Hollow from the fracked gas plant that currently pollutes the community in order to heat the Capitol and Empire State Plaza,” said Merton D. Simpson Jr., Albany County Legislator and Co-Chair of Sheridan Hollow Alliance for Renewable Energy (SHARE).

“Governor Hochul needs to break with Cuomo’s garbage climate policies, which put PR over creating jobs to cut fossil fuel use,” said Rachel Rivera, a Sandy survivor and member of New York Communities for Change. “It’s time to fund climate action and pass these vital bills because climate can’t wait. There’s no time to waste with the climate crisis: delay equals death.”

“It is 2022. Climate legislation needs to start getting passed! We are far too deep into the climate crisis to be holding off any longer. Yet, despite the present danger we are in, the New York State Legislature has failed to pass the large-scale climate legislation needed to comply with the promises made by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). As young people, the fight for our future is more crucial than ever, which is why the New York Youth Climate Leaders are proud to be a part of the Climate Can’t Wait Coalition and join with other like-minded activists and heroes from across the state in pushing for the much-needed passage of climate legislation. The Governor and our state legislators must listen to our voices of all ages, but especially the youth, as our future is in peril. We need them to pass legislation to let New Yorkers transition to a renewable energy economy, thus saving our future which we will not stop fighting for,” said Mandy Berghela, senior in high school and co-director of Government Affairs with the New York Youth Climate Leaders.

A recording of today’s press conference is available here; additional quotes are available here.

Climate Can’t Wait is a collaboration between 350NJ-Rockland, 350NYC, 350Brooklyn, Citizen Action of New York, Divest NY, Empire State Indivisible, El Puente, Energy Democracy Alliance, Food & Water Watch, For the Many, Forest Hills Green Team, Fossil Fuel Subsidies Coalition, Franciscan Action Network- NYA Franciscan Justice Circle, Hudson Center for Community and Environment, Indivisible Harlem, Indivisible Nation BK, Indivisible Scarsdale, Mid Hudson Valley DSA, New York Communities for Change, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, NYC DSA Ecosocialist Working Group, NY Renews, New York State Council of Churches, New York Youth Climate Leaders, NYCD16 Indivisible, PAUSE, People’s Climate Movement-NY, Professional Staff Congress CUNY, Province of St. Mary of the Capuchin Order, Queens Climate Project, Queens County Young Democrats, Rockland United, Sheridan Hollow Alliance for Renewable Energy (SHARE), Sunrise Movement NYC, Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative, TREEage, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and WESPAC Foundation.