NY Renews Organizational Sign-Up

New York Renews Points of Unity: 
1. We seek a sustainable future for the earth and its people. We believe that all people have a right to live and make a living on a living planet.

2. We recognize climate change represents a serious threat to all and especially to vulnerable people such as workers, people of color, seniors, youth, and the poor. Governments at all levels need to act now because the warming planet puts prosperity out of reach for far too many.

3. We understand that unchecked corporate power jeopardizes a sustainable future. We support democratic and public control of the energy and finance sectors so that private interests never compromise the health and well-being of workers and our communities.

4. We can address both the climate crisis and the inequality crisis with the same set of policies. As the impacts of climate change mount, the crises of inequality and democracy will continue to grow.

5. We support rapid movement toward 100% clean renewable energy. We know what must be done. We have to shift away from extracting and burning fossil fuels and towards a lower carbon economy and fast. It is imperative that we recognize and achieve the targets for greenhouse gas emission reduction that climate science requires.

6. Climate protection must serve as a means to greater economic justice and stronger local economies.

The jobs created by climate protection must be good jobs that respect workers’ right to organize. Jobs must be open and accessible to those who have been excluded from and discriminated against in the labor force. Likewise, small businesses and local economies should thrive in a new clean energy economy.

7. Climate protection must serve as a means to challenge environmental and racial injustice. We prioritize climate-vulnerable frontline communities and energy-insecure communities. Fairness and equity means the burden of policies that are necessary for society, like protecting the climate, shouldn’t be borne by a small minority who happen to be victimized by their side effects.

8. We must ensure economic security & job placement program for existing workers and young people. Workers employed in carbon-intensive industries should be guaranteed work in new industries and be provided strong social safety net benefits, including fully-funded retirement plans and free re-training opportunities. Young people benefit from career training for a wide-range of work opportunities in a clean energy future.

9. We must ensure community participation and oversight in decision making. To do that, there need to be resources and meaningful participation by community, labor, environmental justice, environmental, and other constituents.

NY Renews' Legislative Platform

1. Pass the People’s Climate Justice Budget
This involves investing in the state’s newly minted Climate Action Fund which was created in 2023.
Advancing NY Renews’ proposed People’s Climate Justice Budget, which outlines $1 Billion in funding to critical, shovel-ready climate and environmental justice projects that are a must for 2024. This budget essentially helps kickstart a pollution-free, resilient climate future that is built by workers with good union jobs, ensuring a healthy, livable state for generations to come.

2. Pass the Climate, Jobs & Justice Package
NY Home Energy Affordable Transition Act (S.2016-A/ A.4592-A) will give the Public Service Commission the authority and direction to align gas utilities with the Climate Act’s emission reduction and climate justice mandates.
Just Energy Transition Act (S.2935-C/A.4866-C) provides a plan to guide the replacement and redevelopment of at least 4 gigawatts of New York State’s oldest and most polluting fossil fuel facilities and sites by 2030. It lays out a clear, mandatory direction for moving forward with the transition off fossil fuels per the Climate Act.
Climate Change Superfund Act (S.2129-A/A.3351-A) makes the state’s worst polluters, major oil companies, pay to repair and address the harm they’ve caused. The bill would require the Department of Environmental Conservation to assess and collect an annual fee from Big Oil companies that released over one billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions from 2000 to 2018. Big Oil’s greenhouse gas emissions caused the climate crisis and they–not the taxpayers–should pay for the costs.

Jemez Principles
1. Be Inclusive. If we hope to achieve just societies that include all people in decision-making and assure that all people have an equitable share of the wealth and the work of this world, then we must work to build that kind of inclusiveness into our own movement in order to develop alternative policies and institutions to the treaties policies under neoliberalism. This requires more than tokenism, it cannot be achieved without diversity at the planning table, in staffing, and in coordination. It may delay achievement of other important goals, it will require discussion, hard work, patience, and advance planning. It may involve conflict, but through this conflict, we can learn better ways of working together. It’s about building alternative institutions, movement building, and not compromising out in order to be accepted into the anti-globalization club.

2. Emphasis on Bottom-Up Organizing. To succeed, it is important to reach out into new constituencies, and to reach within all levels of leadership and membership base of the organizations that are already involved in our networks. We must be continually building and strengthening a base which provides our credibility, our strategies, mobilizations, leadership development, and the energy for the work we must do daily.

3. Let People Speak for Themselves. We must be sure that relevant voices of people directly affected are heard. Ways must be provided for spokespersons to represent and be responsible to the affected constituencies. It is important for organizations to clarify their roles, and who they represent, and to assure accountability within our structures.

4. Work Together In Solidarity and Mutuality. Groups working on similar issues with compatible visions should consciously act in solidarity, mutuality and support each other’s work. In the long run, a more significant step is to incorporate the goals and values of other groups with your own work, in order to build strong relationships. For instance, in the long run, it is more important that labor unions and community economic development projects include the issue of environmental sustainability in their own strategies, rather than just lending support to the environmental organizations. So communications, strategies and resource sharing is critical, to help us see our connections and build on these.

5. Build Just Relationships Among Ourselves. We need to treat each other with justice and respect, both on an individual and an organizational level, in this country and across borders. Defining and developing “just relationships” will be a process that won’t happen overnight. It must include clarity about decision-making, sharing strategies, and resource distribution. There are clearly many skills necessary to succeed, and we need to determine the ways for those with different skills to coordinate and be accountable to one another.

6. Commitment to Self-Transformation. As we change societies, we must change from operating on the mode of individualism to community-centeredness. We must “walk our talk.” We must be the values that we say we’re struggling for and we must be justice, be peace, be community.