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Justice50 and the Ithaca Green New Deal

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Ithaca Green New Deal Background

  • Sunrise Ithaca was formed in 2019 around trying to pass a Green New Deal in Ithaca → huge community organizing effort
    • Inspired by the Green New Deal proposed to Congress (Sunrise Movement National and AOC)
  • Ithaca Green New Deal adopted unanimously by Common Council on June 5, 2019
  • Intended to address climate change and racial and economic injustice

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Two Major Goals of the Ithaca Green New Deal

  1. Achieve community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030 through grid decarbonization, electrification, and carbon capture.
  2. Ensure benefits are shared among all local communities to reduce historical, social, and economic inequities

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Examples of Ithaca Green New Deal Work

  • Ithaca Green Building Policy (adopted May 2021)
  • Sustainability and Climate Justice Commission (formed June 2023)
  • Electrification program (ongoing)
  • Community Choice Aggregation (in progress)
  • Electrification of the city fleet (in progress)

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Justice50

  • Justice50 is the proposed framework for integrating equity into IGND work
  • It would ensure that 50% of investments go to climate justice communities
    • This is modeled off of the federal Justice40 program (which allocates 40%)
  • The city has defined climate justice communities, but passing the actual implementation guidelines has stalled

Photo from March 2022 rally for the equitable implementation of the IGND

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Climate Justice Communities in Ithaca

  • Difficult to use census tracts to determine climate justice communities in Ithaca
  • Ithaca adopted its own definition of climate justice communities that occurs at the household level
  • Includes criteria such as experiencing food insecurity, having household income <65% county median, being eligible for needs-based assistance, and others

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Draft Justice50 Framework

Minimum investment floor of total IGND funding (including outside investment)

Goals of climate justice community participation in green workforce training and placement programs

Total capital project funding to support climate justice communities

Total capital project budget to be reserved for participatory budgeting beginning in 2024

50%

40%

50%

10%

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Questions?

Contact sunrise.ithaca.ny@gmail.com