The Environment & Climate Change Plan.
Climate change is an existential threat to our planet, and we have responsibility to address it at the municipal level. New York must continue to put its full force behind initiatives to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2050, and plan for our City’s needs through to the next century. Through consistent and vigorous measures that incorporate cutting-edge technologies to lessen our impact on the environment and jobs training programs in new industries, we will implement a powerful Green New Deal for NYC.
Mitigate Carbon Emissions
Enable Green Construction and Retrofit
We’ll enact land use initiatives that prioritize achieving net zero carbon emissions through green construction, while prioritizing retrofits on existing structures and public facilities.
Demand Reporting and Accountability
Good policy requires both transparency and accountability. We’ll work to require that the City track municipal carbon emissions and report projected emissions of all budget line items.
Divest City Pensions from Fossil Fuels
The City must continue its process of achieving full fossil fuel divestiture by 2023 from The Teacher’s Retirement System of the City of New York (TRS), The New York City Employee Retirement System (NYCERS), and The Board of Education Retirement System of the City of New York (BERS). And just as I’ve advocated for my own unions’ benefit plans to divest from fossil fuels, I’ll work to encourage the NYPD and FDNY Pension Funds to join in divesting.
Implement the Congestion Pricing Plan
With a transit sector that accounts for approximately 30 percent of New York’s greenhouse gas emissions, Congestion Pricing has the potential to not only substantially reduce the City’s transit-related carbon footprint. New York is poised to have Congestion Pricing fully activated by the end of 2022, but the work isn’t over yet. We must continue to advocate for and encourage the DOT to update and redefine how congestion pricing is rolled out so that the $1B in annual projected revenue more adequately addresses our need for lower emissions, climate justice, improvements in transit, and safer streets.
Tax Emissions Offenders
We’ll work to implement a carbon tax on producers of excess emissions, and use resulting revenue to fund parallel green initiatives.
Reimagining Our Streets
Implement a Resident Parking Permit System
In conjunction with the roll out of Congestion Pricing, we’ll work to create a Resident Parking Permit Program to ensure that neighborhood residents will have parking priority over out-of-town drivers.
Expand Green Transportation Alternatives
We’ll work to increase access to low carbon transit alternatives such as electric buses, commuter rail, bike-sharing, e-bikes, and scooters, while simultaneously advocating to transform more of our major avenues and cross streets into exclusive byways for public transportation.
Design Pedestrian Friendly Streets
New York is a walking city. We’ll prioritize transitioning the City’s streetscapes into greenspaces and pedestrian thoroughfares with dedicated areas for garbage receptacles and compost bins.
Restart The City’s Food Waste Composting Program
Composting needs to become second nature to all New Yorkers. We’ll encourage the Department of Sanitation to resume its curbside composting program.
Transition to an Electric Fleet
The City operates a fleet of 30 thousand vehicles. We’ll work to ensure a timely transition to electric vehicles.
Boldly Facing and Reversing Climate Change
Invest in Green Jobs
New York City needs to develop and fund emerging green sector job training programs. We’ll work to usher in a thriving sector of employment dedicated to stopping and reversing the effects of climate change. With the announcement that wind energy is coming to the New York Bight, the shallow waters between Long island and the New Jersey Coast, our region is poised to see an influx of nearly 32K jobs between 2022 and 2030, with 6K permanent jobs to follow. We’ll work with the state and federal government to ensure that a fair share of these new energy jobs go to New Yorkers.
Listen to the Experts
We will always follow science. We’ll work to incorporate robust, emerging environmental policies based on evolving environmental science research, and use climate change forecasts to guide our zoning and land use processes.
Preserve the City’s Coastlines
Preserving, protecting, and enhancing our coastal wetlands must be a top priority. In addition to providing a natural sea rise barrier, wetlands are an immense and effective carbon sink. Sequestering carbon through our naturally occurring geology and flora has to be a key component of achieving the City’s carbon neutral goals.
Protect Environmentally Fragile Land
We’ll work to put an end to the sale and auction of environmentally fragile land by the City.
Community Investment
NYCHA is more than just its buildings. We must invest in the communities themselves by creating workforce development, like the Residential Economic Empowerment & Sustainability (REES) program and Resident Leadership Academy, for NYCHA residents.
Expand Greening Projects
New York’s urban forest is among our greatest environmental assets. We’re committed to continuing and expanding city greening initiatives like The Million Trees Project.
Turn Rikers from Blight to Benefit
Rikers Island was created by and built upon toxic landfill. Its crumbling infrastructure is a health hazard and environmental disaster in the making. We will reaffirm the City’s commitment to close Rikers Island and begin the hard work to transform the island into a renewable energy hub.