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Climate Works for All 

Spring 2021 budget priorities 

New York City is in a time of crisis, as we’re still experiencing the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and moving towards an ever worsening climate crisis. 

The Climate Works for All coalition has developed An Equitable Recovery to move us through this crisis, creating 100,000 jobs for Black and brown communities and moving us aggressively towards climate solutions. However, we know the solutions outlined in our report are geared toward the long term recovery of our city, and we’re still in the midst of the crisis. 

Therefore, the Climate Works for All coalition is advocating for the following 2021 budget allocations to position us to move towards an equitable recovery and not backtrack on climate and jobs accomplishments of the last years. 

  1. Invest $80 million in retrofitting public schools to meet LL 97 standards 
  2. Funding would go towards schools that are currently emitting above 2030 – 2034 standards. An annual investment of $80 million would bring high-emitting schools into compliance by 2035. 
  3. Invest $100 million in Solar on Schools 
  4. Funding would go towards solar installation on public schools. An annual investment of $100 million would allow the City to meet its 2025 solar goals. 
  5. Invest $17 million in Public Waste Management 
  6. $4 million of funding would go to DSNY to hire staff to implement the Commercial Waste Zone program 
  7. $13 million of funding would go towards doubling the impact of current community composting and food scrap dropoff programs by adding more local-scale processing sites and compensating staff, ongoing support for school composting, beginning government building composting, and piloting and studying organics collection and recycling in multifamily buildings in preparation for a citywide organics recycling program.
  8. Invest $3 million for Clean Transportation Expansions 
  9. $3 million in funding towards 14 electric school buses for NYCSBUS, the City’s new municipal school bus fleet. 
  10. Further funding should prioritize community led transportation planning to determine local transportation needs for clean, resilient, and accessible public transportation and street safety 

This total investment of $200 million dollars should go towards these existing or new programs that would create good union jobs, move us towards climate goals, and invest in New York City’s Black and brown communities.