NY Renews is leading the fight to implement New York’s landmark climate justice law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. After passing the Climate Act in 2019 and the state Climate Action Fund (CAF) in 2023, today we’re organizing the Fund Climate Campaign to ensure the law is fully funded and that its investment serves our communities, not corporate interests.
Cap Pollution and Invest in Communities
In 2025, New York State should begin collecting dedicated climate funding from a “cap-and-invest” program to make corporate polluters pay for their toxic emissions. Our Fund Climate Campaign ensures that the funds raised by cap-and-invest go to the communities that need it most, lowering energy bills, cutting pollution, improving public health, and protecting our families and future.
Right now, Governor Hochul is stalling the cap-and-invest program’s rollout. NY Renews members are calling on the governor to release the regulations so that we can start funding community-led climate and clean energy projects ASAP. Read more about how Cap and Invest can benefit New Yorkers here.
Our Policy Pillars
At the core of our Fund Climate Campaign are four transformative policies that will help secure a healthier, cleaner, and more affordable New York State:
1.TheAffordable Climate-Ready Homes Program (bill #s pending): As the climate crisis intensifies, New Yorkers pay more for home heating and cooling due to rising utility bills and worsening heat waves and storms. Not only is this expensive—it’s also unsafe, polluting our homes and neighborhoods with toxic fossil fuel fumes and greenhouse gases, destroying our health and our planet. By making home energy and weather safety improvements free to working- and middle-class New Yorkers in our houses, apartments, and small businesses, the Affordable, Climate-Ready Homes Act will make the places we live and work safer, cleaner, and more affordable, protecting our families and our future. Learn more about the Affordable Climate-Ready Homes Program here.
2. The Cap-and-Invest Guardrails Bill (A.3975/S.4651A) ensures that the state’s cap-and-invest program puts communities first and improves public health, lowers bills, and creates good union jobs. Learn more about the Guardrails Bill here.
3. The GAP Fund (A.2101/S.3315) to help low-income households make their homes and apartments safer and healthier by remediating mold, asbestos, lead, poor ventilation, and more, preparing them for clean-energy upgrades. Learn more about the GAP Fund here.
The NY Renews coalition works in service of and in partnership with Indigenous Nations across NY state to advocate for needs around the energy transition and other matters impacting Native communities. Our campaign calls for:
FY 2025-2026 budget appropriations for rehabilitation and renovation projects at Native schools, as well as to the restoration and expansion of critical Native elder care programs and Native health clinics.
Legislative and land justice initiatives, such as the Reinstatement of the Montaukett Indian Nation (A5295 / S3308) and the suspension of funding and permitting for the culturally destructive and environmentally dangerous Western New York STAMP mega industrial site.
STAMP is currently under construction on the border of the federally recognized Tonawanda Seneca Nation, part of the Haudneosaunee, and poses an existential threat to the Nation, its citizens, and its unceded homelands. It violates the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, which enshrines the right of Haudenosaunee people to the “free use and enjoyment” of their lands.
We maintain that there can be no climate justice without upholding Indigenous sovereignty.
