Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at the New York League of Conservation Voters’ 2016 Spring Gala

May 16, 2016

Marcia Bystryn: So, now, we have another speaker. Our next speaker actually needs no introduction. He is the 109th Mayor of the City of New York, Bill de Blasio. I think you should applaud.

[Applause]

Last year, Mayor de Blasio laid out a sweeping vision for a strong and just city – OneNYC – a comprehensive blueprint of New York City’s long term growth, equity, sustainability, and resiliency which put environmental and economic justice hand-in-hand. The plan contains over 200 separate initiatives – bold commitments to reducing emissions 80 percent by 2050, achieving the best air quality of any city in the United States, and sending zero waste to landfills by 2030.

[Applause]

And, for our folks over here – ensuring that all New Yorkers have access to parks.

In his recent yearly update, the administration laid out specifics on how it was going to move the ball forward towards those ambitious goals. And I have to say, the League is extremely impressed. We are so pleased to have the Mayor and his great staff. And I want to call out Nilda Mesa –

[Applause]

And Dan Zarrilli.

[Applause]

We’re so pleased to have them as our partners as we move forward to ensure that Albany does not overturn the single-bag bill.

[Applause]

And I think Brad Lander is here. And I think he’s with me on that.

[Applause]

And we want to improve municipal parks, and we also want to cut commute times for people in the furthest reaches of the city through the Select Bus system. But that does not mean that we are not widely supportive of the BQX –

[Applause]

Who stole my staff person, but nevertheless –

[Laughter]

Without further ado, it is my great pleasure to introduce the Mayor of the City of New York, Bill de Blasio.

[Applause]

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Could I hear a little more enthusiasm for the BQX, please?

[Applause]

There we go, equal time for the BQX.

Thank you, Marcia, so much. Thank you to everyone here. I want to take a moment to let you know how much I appreciate the work you do. It has been an eye-opening time in history the last few years. And New York City has been in the center of it in so many ways. Everyone remembers, a couple years ago, the Climate March – that extraordinary outpouring of grass-root sentiments, people demanding change here and all over the world.

[Applause]

And it was not predicted to be as big of an event as it became. It was another indication of the fact that the people often see what leaders and institutions don’t see as clearly – people of this Earth understood the urgency of the moment. They showed it during those marches all over the world.

Last year, in Paris, we saw the greatest step forward on climate change. We had [inaudible] and then it was finally codified just weeks ago here in New York City. I had the honor of being at the United Nations, watching that treaty signed, and recognizing that finally governments were expressing just some of the urgency necessary to deal with this moment.

You have been expressing that urgency for years and years in terms of climate change and so many other environmental challenges. And you’ve done, what I think, is the most sensible thing for citizens to do when they feel that urgency – you’ve turned it into action, and you’ve showed people that they have the power to make change through their vote. And you’ve educated people, and you’ve mobilized people to vote in favor of the environment. So, the work you’ve been doing is crucially important. It’s so important to this city but obviously to our nation, our globe.

So, I want to thank you for it because, perhaps, when this organization began it was important but now it literally could not be more important.

So thank yourselves for this great work.

[Applause]

Congratulations to your Board Chair, Kevin Corbett; your Education Fund Chair, Ed Cox; your honorees Stephen Ross and The New Jewish Home. And I want to join Marcia in bragging about my staff – could not be more proud of the work of Nilda Mesa and Dan Zarrilli and Dan Walsh.

[Applause]

And I also want to thank our great partner in everything we do in government, Tom DiNapoli – one of the really great public servants in this state.

[Applause]

So, Marcia referenced our plan, OneNY, and it was all about being even bolder in terms of addressing the environmental challenges at the same time, as Marcia said, marrying that challenge, that cause with the work of economic fairness, and recognizing the two had to walk hand-in-hand. The solution to each lies in the work we have to do on the other because we have to do something transformative when it comes to addressing climate change and other environmental challenges – and at the same time we have to transform our economy in so many ways. And we can do this work together – that’s the hopeful part in this. That’s why OneNY was such a powerful plan for us to work on, and we’re very proud of the update – showing you the tangible progress made because we found that the synergy was extraordinary. We could do so much good while giving people opportunity at the same time.

Now, I want to say – I’ll be very quick this evening – but I want to say, the most fundamental thing you need to hear from the Mayor of this city, which is that we do not accept a status quo that will further degrade our Earth, and we do not accept the limitations that were previously assumed in terms of the kind of action that we can take. We are very comfortable at City Hall accepting the notion that we have to be bold. This most urgent of crises requires us to do something fundamentally different.

Now, when we say zero waste to the landfill by 2030, we actually mean it. It will take a huge amount of change, but we have to do it – we all have to do it for the preservation of this Earth. And we’ve tried to show already that we could do things more quickly than previously assumed – composting and recycling are now reaching more New Yorkers than ever. We have tripled the amount of curbside organic pickup – and more to come.

[Applause]

We are proud – and I want to join you in commending the City Council and commending Councilman Brad Lander – we’re proud of the new bill on plastic bags.

[Applause]

And we know democracies are wonderful things, so when you’re mayor you instantly hear the critique and the concern – and I have had people say to me – well, it’s regressive, and it’s unfair. And I’ve said to them back – I don’t know if you’re going to find a lot of people in public life who have spent more time working on economic fairness and progressive change than I have. I’m going to tell you why this legislation is absolutely fair and necessary.

First of all, saving our Earth is in everyone’s interest.

[Applause]

Second of all, we have to change our habits, and we have to change our lifestyles – it’s as simple as that. This legislation helps us do it. People make change quickly – sometimes, bluntly, an economic incentive is necessary. Sometimes it’s a positive incentive, sometimes it’s a negative incentive. But we’ve seen people change their habits quickly. People will change their habits quickly, you’ll see New Yorkers starting to use reusable bags in short order, and plastic bags will soon be a thing of the past. And thank God, they’ll be a thing of the past because we could not afford what they were doing to us any longer.

We have set this city on a course to reduce emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050 – another necessary goal.

[Applause]

And by the way, we should all be pushing to go a lot farther and a lot faster. But what we’re doing now – retrofitting all our public buildings in the course of the next 10 years – you’re going to see a lot more solar panels like you see on City Hall right now, you’re going to see them on a lot more City buildings. You’re going to see LED lighting in our police precincts and our fire houses, just like you’re seeing more and more in streetlamps. And we will require – we will mandate – that our private sector buildings retrofit as well. We’re working with the private sector. We’ve made some real progress. I’ve said it from the moment I announced this vision two years ago at the United Nations – whenever we don’t make enough progress quickly enough, we will mandate retrofitting in private buildings again because the Earth demands it.

[Applause]

We have the goal – and it’s a goal we will achieve – we will have the cleanest air of any major city in America by 2030.

[Applause]

So many people in this room should feel a piece of this victory in the making. So many of you worked so hard – for the update of our air codes, something that was decades overdue. So many of you worked hard to phase out the dirtiest heating oil, which is now gone from our city. It’s something to be proud of.

[Applause]

I want to give you something else you will soon be proud of – we are now in the process of creating what will be the world’s largest municipal electric car fleet – the largest on Earth will be owned by the New York City government.

[Applause]

And starting soon in this city, except for emergency vehicles, when we buy a car – when this City of New York buys a car – it will only be an electric car, starting soon.

[Applause]

This is the work we do every day. There is no contradiction at all between it and all the other priorities in this city – in fact, they are symbiotic. There is no contradiction between the work of protecting our environment and the work of protecting our people through the $20 billion in resiliency efforts underway all over the city right now. You get to watch this progress item by item. It’s a transparency we’re very proud of because we’re convinced you’ll see a product that will grow and grow all the time. Go to nyc.gov/onenyc, and you will see this vision take shape.

So I want to thank you – I want to thank you for recognizing that the Earth comes first. The Earth is more important than all the conveniences we have been brought up with. The Earth is more important than all the profits that are sought. The Earth is everything to us. The work you do reminds us all the time of that obligation, and the work you do and the successes you have had remind us it’s not too late. We can get it right. We can turn the tide and create a sustainable and livable Earth for all.

Thank you and God bless you all.