Climate change is impacting life in Brooklyn. The impacts will get worse and marginalized communities will suffer most. Political polarization has hampered efforts to address climate change at the federal level. This provides an opportunity for local governments to lead a proactive approach in the fight against climate change and its effects. The typical reactive approach creates opaque, unequal and discriminatory allocation of funding across climate change prevention, planning, and clean-up. New Kings Democrats (NKD) recognize that our broader policy goals depend on a successful response to climate change.

Candidates supported by NKD should be committed to using their platform to fight climate change and create a healthy, equitable, and sustainable city. We therefore will:

• expect candidates seeking endorsement to know about the climate-related issues impacting the community they seek to represent
• expect candidates have a detailed understanding of how they can influence climate change in the office they seek
• include pointed question(s) about climate issues on questionnaires for candidates seeking salaried positions
• ask candidates about climate issues during the endorsement interview and include climate issues in internally organized candidate forums for candidates seeking salaried positions

NKD will support climate policies and legislation that:

• are grounded in the participation and advocacy of historically disenfranchised communities most impacted by the effects of climate change
• offer long-term planning for resiliency and sustainability, with measurable annual targets
• embed climate science and equity in all land use policies and capital planning
• focus funding on the most impacted neighborhoods
• facilitate accountability and transparency in city agencies and processes
• accelerate New York City’s Net Zero by 2050 goal
• support green jobs and economic security in Kings County and beyond
• invest in clean infrastructure and industry
• secure clean air and water, climate and community resiliency, healthy food, access to nature, and a sustainable environment for all

Our elected leaders must advance climate issues. NKD expects candidates for office to understand the imperative and urgency to confront the challenges of climate change; and be willing and able to speak on climate policy. Laws and policy proposals must be evaluated based on their consequences for our climate. The social, economic, and racial challenges of Kings County are tied closely with climate risk and underrepresented communities must be at the forefront of policy and legislation.