Dear Fellow New Yorker,
Of the dozens of proposals in my 2020 agenda, one issue in particular rises to the top in its urgency and scale: tackling the climate crisis.
The threat posed by climate change to our state, and the entire planet, is all important. We only have one planet — and we only have one chance to fix it before reaching a point of no return.
That's why I'm proposing a $3 billion "Restore Mother Nature" Bond Act to fund critical environmental restoration projects in every corner of the state — to ensure that New York is able to use nature's own tools to withstand the threats posed by climate change.
Bond acts are special pieces of legislation that are put to a vote on the ballot by New Yorkers. In order to be enacted, they must be approved by voters in the November general election.
Why pass the "Restore Mother Nature" Bond Act?
For hundreds of years, our environment had its own systems to correct imbalances. Shellfish filtered pollution and toxins in the water. Forests improved air quality. Marshes and wetlands helped prevent floods.
But over the decades, we degraded our environment — destroying these natural systems. Now we're suffering the consequences.
Any comprehensive plan to combat climate change requires that we restore the environment by restoring habitats to reduce flood risk, improving water quality, sequestering carbon, and more.
The "Restore Mother Nature" Bond Act would be the largest environmental bond act in New York State history, and it is part of our unprecedented $33 billion commitment to fight climate change over the next five years.
The scale of this bond act is big, but so is the problem we face.
If we don't save the planet, everything else is irrelevant. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren to act now.
Ever Upward,
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
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