Flowers are blooming, greenery is returning to our blocks. April is Earth Month. But even perennials rear with their old problems. This month, we continued to fight against the Governor’s attempts to gut the Climate Law, to close Peaker plants, and to replace the jails on Rikers with a renewable future. Learn about these initiatives and more in this month’s newsletter. | | Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act Updates | | |
Governor Hochul is still working to convince the Legislature to gut the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (or the “Climate Act”) in the budget behind closed doors. Governor Hochul’s reported proposal to weaken the Climate Act to the point of making it meaningless is unacceptable. The Climate Act was intended to deliver less pollution and funding for climate solutions and projects in our communities who have long choked on dirty air and dealt with asthma. We cannot turn our back on these communities by accepting either one of the Governor’s proposals. NYC-EJA worked with environmental justice leaders and supportive allies to demand environmental and climate justice be at the forefront of the negotiations if concessions are made. Along with the broader climate and environmental movement, we also released this memo of opposition rejecting the Governor's proposal to gut the Climate Law. We urge the Legislature to keep standing strong and reject the reported recent deal that would amount to a massive rollback of the Climate Law.
Please contact your legislator and Senate and Assembly leadership today and tell them to keep the best interests of New Yorkers today and the future in mind by upholding the Climate Act!
| | NYC-EJA Executive Director, Eddie Bautista, and Senior Climate Advisor, Conor Bambrick, present on CLCPA to Assembly Puerto Rican & Hispanic Task Force | | Release of the NYC Urban Forest Plan | | |
On Tuesday, April 21st the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice released the City’s first ever NYC Urban Forest Plan (UFP). The urban forest, defined as every tree that lives in the five NYC boroughs, is an essential element of our City’s infrastructure. A dense tree canopy provides a range of benefits to the city and its residents such as decreasing urban heat, improving a variety of physical and mental health outcomes, decreasing flooding, increasing biodiversity, and improving air quality. Right now, the urban forest is not equally spread across the city, with most environmental justice (EJ) communities living with significantly fewer trees than wealthier parts of the city. The intention of creating the UFP was to address how to equitably spread the Urban Canopy and prioritize trees, their maintenance, planting, and stewardship (community tree care) in a way that would invest in areas that have been historically deprioritized.
The UFP has provided a timeline to one of the Forest For All NYC Coalition’s primary goals of reaching 30% canopy cover equitably citywide, with a promise of 30% canopy by 2040. The development of this plan would not have been possible without the leadership and advocacy of the Forest For All NYC Coalition - of which NYC-EJA is a leading member.
Want to know more? Read our fact sheet here. And see NYC-EJA’s Press Statement in response to the newly released Urban Forest Plan here.
| | Source: Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice | | Renewable Rikers Features in Earth Day Panel at CUNY Law | | On April 13th, the Environmental Law Club of the CUNY Law School hosted a conversation on the future of environmental law and current city priorities, including Renewable Rikers! The panel included NYC-EJA’s land use planner, Michael Higgins Jr., as well as campaign partners Eric Goldstein at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack, and new director of the Center for Urban Environmental Reform (CUER) and sponsor of the original Renewable Rikers Act, Costa Constantinides. | | | PEAK Rally at Brooklyn Army Terminal | | On Thursday, April 16, 2026, NYC-EJA, alongside PEAK Coalition partners UPROSE, The POINT CDC, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and our allies from El Puente and NY Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium held a press conference and rally in front of the Narrows peaker power plant in Sunset Park. The rally was held amidst proposals by Governor Hochul and power plant companies to prolong existing power plants or even build new and costly polluting peakers in Sunset Park. In response to these alarming developments, PEAK created a 7-point plan to safeguard and continue a just transition for power plant communities in New York City. Our vision includes a series of short to long-term actions that New York State leaders and energy developers must take to ensure a cleaner, more affordable, and more reliable energy that serves all New Yorkers. You can read our open letter here. | | Walking Tour Features Green Transition Efforts in Hunts Point and Renewable Rikers | | |
On April 25th, NYC-EJA Land Use Planner, Michael Higgins, led a walking tour in the Bronx as part of a series of conversations on the future of renewable energy in New York City sponsored by the Center of Architecture.
Hosted by The Point CDC, the tour reviewed planning efforts in Hunts Point, including initiatives to electrify key infrastructure within the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, and construction of a new freight-focused EV charging station. The walk also reviewed the vision to redevelop Rikers Island and potential benefits for the neighborhood. The walk will also be featured as part of a CFA exhibit, Energies of Repair: Visualizing Community Power in NYC to be hosted between May and September 2026.
| | | Earth Day at The Brotherhood Sister Sol | | |
On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, NYC-EJA State Climate Policy Manager, Celeste Perez, and Climate and Health Programs Manager, Victoria Sanders, joined our member BroSis for their community Earth Day event.
The day was marked by a variety of fun and educational activities such as composting information, making smoothies with the power of a bicycle, and our booth where we shared information and resources about heat risks and safety. Community members received various materials to protect themselves in an extreme heat event such as instant cold packs, portable hand fans, electrolyte packets and more!
To learn more about extreme heat impacts, check our NYC-EJA’s extreme heat factsheet here.
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Paul Jones III is NYC-EJA’s new Transportation Planner.!
Paul is a native of Detroit, MI and now calls Bed-Stuy home. He has 10 years of urban planning experience spanning from community organizing, institutional, transportation policymaking, and government realms.
Paul was most recently a Community Planner for the U.S.DOT specializing in Program Development and Capacity Building.
He has a BA in Urban Studies from Wayne State University and a Master of Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Michigan.
| | | Be sure to check for more exciting news from NYC-EJA about our ongoing work, on our website, on social media, and in future newsletters! And if you like what you read, please consider making a tax-exempt donation to support our work. | | | | |
