New York City Climate and Community Stimulus Platform

5 min readApr 21, 2020

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We are the Climate Works for All coalition, a coalition of labor, community, environmental justice and faith organizations all working together to fight climate change and ensure a just transition and fair economy for workers and low-income communities.

We are in the midst of a global health and economic crisis. The economy is collapsing, and we have already seen widespread job loss and trauma for many people that will continue to grow. We are now seeing what our coalition has known all along, that the hardest hit areas where most essential and low-wage workers reside are black and brown neighborhoods. For example, a recent preliminary study found that long-term exposure to high levels of fine particulate matter puts communities at a significantly higher risk of dying from coronavirus; communities with higher levels of pollution across the city are low-income, black and brown communities. The black population may be dying at a younger age than the white population. And, though only about 29% of the population, Latinx deaths account for 34% of the deaths in NYC, the largest share for any racial or ethnic group. Over 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the last 4 weeks, rising to a higher rate than at any point since the Great Depression. New York City has the 4th highest job loss in the nation. Unemployment disparities mirror the lack of access to healthcare across racial lines. Restaurant, nail salon, retail and other sectors where workers, who are overwhelmingly women of color, are experiencing the highest job loss, and their jobs may not return at all after the crisis. But this is not a new story. Our communities have faced economic disenfranchisement and disinvestment for decades, lacking access to affordable and healthy housing, quality healthcare, residing in the most polluted areas of the city, and working for poverty wages.

The coronavirus pandemic has taught us that our government is grossly unprepared to protect our most vulnerable communities. But we can learn from this crisis and take aggressive, bold action to prepare for the crisis that has existed before the global pandemic: climate change. There is no time to sit and wait. Climate solutions will create direct opportunities for coming out of an economic collapse, but only if there is large-scale, coordinated citywide action rooted in equity. If we get this right today, we can create a forward-looking plan that addresses how our communities, especially frontline communities, can recover from an unprecedented economic crisis and thrive in a post-COVID city by building a resilient New York.

In a time of great uncertainty, this much is clear: WE NEED GOOD JOBS. We need to move on a plan to create good jobs as soon as the economy can reopen safely, and that proactive plan can be adopted now. Our movement is coming together — labor unions, community organizations, environmental justice groups, and elected officials — to collectively call for immediate funds from the federal government to help us rebuild as a city. Austerity does not bring prosperity or justice or solutions to climate change. Another world is possible when we come out the other side.

We stand together to call on our government for a commitment to the Climate and Community stimulus plan to strengthen our economy, put workers back to work in good, sustainable union jobs, prioritize the health, safety and wellbeing of environmental justice and low income communities, and move us towards our climate goals. Below is our platform that outlines major job creation strategies in the climate economy, and we emphasize that the following key principles be followed in the transition:

1. Centering low income Black and brown environmental justice communities 2. Creating good union jobs within the climate industry
3. Meeting New York City’s 2050 climate goals