The New York League of Conservation Voters and NYLCV Education Fund (NYLCV/EF) released their 2025 New York City Policy Agenda.
The agenda comes in advance of the League’s 2025 non-partisan Mayoral Forum on the Environment, which will be held on March 6 at NYU Skirball theater.
[Register to attend NYLCVEF’s Mayoral Forum on the Environment.]
The League’s 2025 agenda prioritizes environmental protection and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by:
- Ensuring the city’s front-line agencies are funded and fully staffed, with a special focus on the Department of Parks and Recreation.
- Calling for new legislation, like establishing a goal for New York City to have at least 2 gigawatts of energy storage systems capacity by 2030, establishing a safe recycling program for rechargeable lithium ion batteries – particularly for e-bikes and e-scooters – and expanding the City’s existing benchmarking law for qualifying buildings.
- Implementing existing laws such as Local Law 97, the city’s all-electric school bus mandate, the NYC Streets Plan, the Urban Forest Plan, and the Zero Waste Act in a timely fashion.
“Climate change is wreaking havoc on our weather patterns and on our well being. The causes are global, but the impacts are local, and if our city is not prepared, the cost will come in both lives and property,” said NYLCV President Julie Tighe. “That means making sure our park forests are maintained so they don’t serve as tinder during droughts. We also need to ramp up our natural green and blue defenses while upgrading our traditional gray infrastructure to protect against flooding and sea level rise. And we must increase tree cover to protect people and communities from extreme heat and improve quality of life.
“At the same time we defend against the impacts that have already arrived, we must drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels to improve air quality and avoid the most devastating consequences of a warming planet,” added Tighe. “That means clean energy powering our buildings, fewer gas-guzzling cars on the road, and less waste traveling to landfills.”
NYLCV/EF stresses that environmental justice and equity must be centered in all of these areas, including the creation of equitable green jobs and training programs, prioritizing disadvantaged communities to reinvigorate the economy, support a modern workforce and promote sustainable projects.
The full agenda is available here.
Here are our top priorities:
Investing in Parks, Tree Canopy, and Resilient Infrastructures
The NYC Department of Parks and Recreation is chronically underfunded and understaffed. While parks and green spaces make up 14% of the City’s land, it receives less than 1% of the City’s budget. On top of this, parks, tree canopy, and access to the City’s waterfront are not equitably distributed. Access to green spaces is on average much lower in Disadvantaged Communities (DAC) already plagued by adverse health problems and high levels of pollution. The City must allocate 1% of the budget to our parks system and create an Urban Forest Plan that equitably expands the City’s tree canopy from the current 22% coverage to 30% coverage. Beyond investing in our existing parks, New York City must continue making its waterfronts more resilient and expand green infrastructure, especially in the outer boroughs.
Decarbonizing Our Buildings
Buildings account for over 70% of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions. This is one of the reasons why the City Council passed and NYLCV strongly supported Local Law 97—to directly combat this source of emissions and reduce harmful pollutants that disproportionately impact low income and communities of color. As this law’s compliance and reporting period begins, the City must continue conducting outreach and education, and expanding technical assistance on compliance and financing pathways. Decarbonizing our building sector also requires a multipronged approach, including increasing the use of solar panels, energy storage systems, thermal energy networks, and upgrading current building systems to be more energy efficient.
Reimagining Our Transportation System
Transportation is the second highest source of NYC’s greenhouse gas emissions and is a major source of air pollution, causing respiratory and other public health issues. This is particularly burdensome near the City’s many major highways, which historically have cut through low-income and communities of color. The City must get back on track implementing the mandated milestones in the NYC Streets Plan, continue improving public transportation access, expand the Fair Fares NYC program to 200% of the federal poverty level, and work towards an all-electric fleet, including our City’s school bus fleet by 2035. With the launch of Congestion Pricing, we must take a comprehensive approach to reimagining our street space and fully commit to Vision Zero.
Fund and Timely Implement Environmental Laws
A major throughline for our policy priorities is the importance of robust funding for agency staffing and timely implementation. With the passage of numerous environmental and climate laws in the last several years—including the City’s Local Law 97, the all electric school bus law, the NYC Streets Plan, and the Zero Waste Act—we must ensure the City has sufficient resources and funding for agency staffing, implementation, and outreach. NYLCV will be actively engaged with the City’s annual budget process and we look forward to working with the Administration, City Council, and advocates.
Centering Equity as We Fight Climate Change
Given the decades of environmental racism and historic disinvestment against low-income and communities of color, in addition to the day-to-day impacts of climate change such as extreme heat, DACs must receive specific attention and prioritization when it comes to investing in green jobs, parks, resilient infrastructure, transportation, and emissions reduction. NYLCV will ensure that environmental justice and equity continues to be integrated into all of our climate policy priorities and environmental advocacy work.