Five of the eight Democrats challenging Eric Adams in the NYC mayoral race tackled climate change and Hizzoner’s immigration policies during the “Climate Jobs Justice” candidates forum on Feb. 6 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in Midtown Manhattan.
Some 36 climate action organizations, including Sane Energy Project, Sunrise NYC, New York Communities for Change, Fridays for Future NYC, and Rise and Resist, co-sponsored the event.
Moderators of the event were Fridays for Future NYC member Helen Mancini and Santosh Nandabalan with Communities for Change. The candidates included former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, current New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, state Senator Jessica Ramos (D-Queens), state Senator Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn), and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens), who were prepared to answer questions relating to climate, job, and immigration policies to the crowd of a few hundred inside Adler Hall.
Climate talk, and pledge
The candidates were asked if they would commit to a wide range of climate and justice policies, including the enforcement of Local Law 95, which requires carbon caps on 50,000 buildings larger than 25,000 square feet to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050; ending renewable energy credits (RECs); opposing the Iroquois pipeline expansion project; converting 100 New York City schools to all-electricity heating by 2030; and others.
All candidates agreed that acting on the climate emergency was one of the most pressing issues and unanimously pledged to support the issues presented to them. Many said they felt strongly about doing more on a local level to protect the environment as the Trump administration works to tear down federal policies.
However, not all signed the pledge to divest the city pension funds from the fossil fuel industry.
While Stringer, Ramos, Myrie, and Mamdani signed the full pledge, Lander disagreed with the first part but signed off on the second part of the pledge.
Lander explained his half pledge that singling out one asset manager by name would open the door for a lawsuit.
“We got sued for our fossil fuel divestment, and we won in court because we sat it on a solid legal foundation. But you can’t single out an asset manager amongst the 300 that manage for us,” Lander said. “Even if they’re the biggest, you’ve got to [set] standards across the board. And that’s [why we’re] setting the strongest standards for asset managers of any U.S. public pension fund and teaming up with global asset managers through the Net Aero Asset Owners Alliance to make them real for BlackRock — and for everybody else.”
Stringer, who served as City Comptroller from 2014 to 2021 under the De Blasio administration, on the other hand, said the city should have a “zero tolerance policy for dirt polluters.” In 2018, Stringer and then-Mayor De Blasio announced a plan to divest $5 billion of New York’s pension fund from fossil fuel companies; the plan was approved in 2021.
“It’s a $300 billion fund. It’s a fund that we can leverage. It’s playing chess, not checkers, and it’s not about being timid and being afraid,” Stringer said.
Ramos, chair of the Committee on Labor, referred to her jobs and housing pilot program, which she passed in the State Senate. The program creates jobs in the construction industry while addressing the housing crisis.
“[It’s] all about investing in the weatherization of our buildings,” Ramos said, “and making sure that we are building new buildings and all of the new housing that is needed in a way that respects our planet. Investing in that alone should actually yield a very profitable margin for our pensions.”
Myrie said he was unafraid to stand up to the fossil fuel industry.
“The fossil fuel industry has been pushing people around for decades, knowing the harm that they’re causing to our planet, lying about that harm, and buying people to stay silent and not take action,” Myrie said. ” So I will be willing to use our pension funds to do the right thing and to divest and to hold people accountable.”
Mamdani said all fossil fuel companies like BlackRock cared about was money, not morals or principles.
“The only way [BlackRock] will understand we are serious about our commitments to taking on the climate crisis is that we are willing to take those billions of dollars, we let them manage and put them somewhere else, put them to work with money managers that are far more in line with the values,” he said.
Migrants and ICE policy
The candidates were also asked about Mayor Adams’ memo to migrant shelter contractors, stating that if contractors felt threatened, they could allow agents of the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to enter migrant shelters without a judicial warrant.
Stringer criticized Adams for blaming migrants for New York City’s fiscal crisis.
“Eric Adams has been hurting migrants, people undocumented for his whole term as mayor, and nobody has come to the rescue,” Stringer said. “We needed someone to stand up and do the numbers and say very clearly that our migrants, our undocumented workers, are the heart of our economy.”
Ramos, the daughter of formerly undocumented immigrants from Columbia, pointed out that migrants paid taxes, contributing to the U.S. economy.
“The deportation of families would cripple our economy,” said Ramos, who shared that ICE raids were already happening in her district. Ramos called out Adams for failing to inform migrant parents to file and notarize powers of attorney to ensure their kids were cared for by someone they trusted instead of entering the foster care system if their parents were deported.
“That is something that is already happening in my district, and that will likely continue to happen unless we make our voices heard,” Ramos said.
Myrie shared Mayor Adams had issued a similar memo directing city hospitals to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
“What this memo does is it goes beyond our Constitution. I’m also a lawyer. I can read the Constitution. I can interpret the law. This is flat-out unconstitutional, and this mayor is bending the knee, refusing to stand up for vulnerable New Yorkers,” Myrie said.
While Adams was in Albany last Tuesday, Mamdani asked the mayor if he would uphold New York City’s sanctuary laws, which prevent ICE from entering New York City public schools, hospitals, and city properties unless they have a warrant signed by a judge.
“He refused to answer that question, punting it to the city’s law department,” Mamdani recalled. “This is a mayor who has shown us time and time again that he views the law as a suggestion, not as a requirement, not as something that has to be upheld.”
During his tenure as council member, Lander worked alongside then-City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to pass New York City’s sanctuary law.
“It is galling to see Eric Adams violate them,” Lander said. “We’ve sent them a demand letter for every one of those notices and letters so that we can make clear all the places that they’ve been violating the law.
