SUCCESS STORIES
LEADING THE WAY
NY RENEWS
Climate justice organizers in New York State are creating a model for the US and the world. In 2019, the most sweeping climate justice legislation in the country was passed through the efforts of NY Renews, a coalition of 360 environmental, justice, faith, labor, and community groups across New York State. The law mandates the elimination of fossil fuel use by 2050 and allocates 40% of climate and energy investments to environmental justice communities.
Decades of community organizing in NYC built the foundation for this extraordinary success. The NYC Environmental Justice Alliance helped launch NY Renews and has elevated the advocacy of grassroots organizations in NYC’s low-income communities of color for over 30 years. Similarly, coalition member WE ACT for Environmental Justice was formed in 1988 in West Harlem. These organizations have dramatically increased the visibility and participation of the most impacted communities at the local, state, and national levels.
LANDBACK
LANDBACK is an Indigenous-led movement led across North America, also known as Turtle Island, to restore Indigenous sovereignty over and stewardship of ancestral lands. LANDBACK seeks a measure of social and cultural restoration in response to Native American genocide and displacement, as well as ecological restoration that can mend and protect against climate impacts through techniques that are part of what professional ecologists call “traditional ecological knowledge.” These techniques include planned burning that can help prevent extreme fire events.
NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led activist organization founded in 2018, is working on LANDBACK with 200+ Indigenous groups in the US. In North America and around the world, millions of acres of land have been transferred to Indigenous tribes.