Albany, NY – Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, chair of the New York State Association of Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislators, joined advocates and fellow lawmakers Wednesday at the Million Dollar Staircase for an emergency climate rally calling on state leaders to reject any effort to weaken New York’s climate law during budget negotiations.

The rally brought together environmental advocates, legislators and community members to defend the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, or CLCPA, amid concerns that the law could be rolled back as part of closed-door budget talks. Speakers warned that any delay or weakening of the law would deepen the climate crisis, worsen affordability pressures and disproportionately harm the same communities already facing the greatest environmental and public health burdens.

“We have so many different crises before us,” said Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages. “We have a public health crisis, we have a climate crisis, we have an affordability crisis. And when we look at the metrics, we see that marginalized communities are always at harm. And when we think about rolling back our climate laws, we are just saying to those communities, you don't matter. And I'm here to say they do.”

“Being from Long Island, God's country as I call it, I know that we are not immune. We face 75 to $100 billion in climate costs just to protect Long Island. We're talking about rising sea levels, extreme storms, flooded streets. These are not hypothetical. These are already here. I lived through Hurricane Sandy, and I saw it firsthand. And when we talk about communities of color, Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, Asian, New Yorkers, they live on the front line of climate harm. They breathe the dirtiest air. They flood first. They die in the floods and they recover last. I’ve lived these experiences, and our climate crisis can't wait. We can't roll back.”

Speakers throughout the rally stressed that New Yorkers are already living through the effects of climate change and cannot afford delays in implementing the state’s clean energy goals. They also rejected the idea that weakening the climate law would solve the state’s affordability challenges, arguing instead that expanding renewable energy is critical to lowering costs and protecting vulnerable communities.

Assemblywoman Solages said the stakes are especially high for Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian communities, which too often bear the brunt of environmental harm while having the fewest resources to recover. She called on state leaders to stand firm and ensure that New York continues moving forward on climate action, not backward.

The rally was part of a broader day of action at the Capitol urging lawmakers to oppose any secret budget deal that would undermine the CLCPA and to keep New York’s climate commitments intact.