Gov. Kathy Hochul’s climate failures abound. Just in the past few weeks, she has approved a fracked gas pipeline, kept operational a polluting cryptocurrency mine on Seneca Lake, paused implementation of the All-Electric Buildings Act, and threatened to weaken our historic Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Previously, she indefinitely stalled cap-and-invest, New York’s program to make corporate polluters pay; and propped up dangerous nuclear energy. These measures harm average New Yorkers while profiting greedy corporations.
Moreover, Hochul joins previous state leaders who have violated treaties with Indigenous nations in New York, thus undermining their sovereignty. These violations are deeply linked with her climate failures, because addressing climate change necessitates the centering of Indigenous sovereignty, worldviews and initiatives.
Indigenous communities in New York exist on the front line of climate change impacts. They possess unique, longstanding relationships with the environment and understand best practices for land care. They have also led on climate justice: pushing for the fracking ban, exposing nuclear power as a false solution and challenging data centers that want to exploit our shared resources for profit.
As we observe Thanksgiving and near the end of Native American Heritage Month, let’s be clear: Efforts to implement the Climate Act will fail if Hochul fails to understand the inextricable connection between climate justice and Indigenous sovereignty.
Hochul’s climate and energy agenda ignores her own affordability concerns and violates both the treaty and environmental justice. As a part of the state’s recent Draft Energy Plan public comment period, the Tuscarora Nation, Onondaga Nation and Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force called on New York to abandon its plans for new nuclear power and to retire the existing fleet of plants on Haudenosaunee lands. The Tonawanda Seneca have called upon New York officials to uphold the Treaty of Canandaigua by ending both direct and indirect subsidies, as well as permits and approvals, for all developments at STAMP, the Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park in Genesee County.
At this critical juncture for a livable climate, we must heed the Nations’ demands. Instead of investing in fossil fuels, crypto or nuclear power, Hochul must implement cap-and-invest and use its revenues to realize a renewable energy future based on solar, wind, geothermal and long-duration battery storage.
Climate collapse in New York began with stolen land, broken treaties and the displacement of the Haudenosaunee Nations whose ecological governance sustained these territories for centuries. Any climate strategy that ignores this history treats symptoms, not causes. Real climate justice requires honoring treaties, supporting Indigenous stewardship and restoring the authority of the first caretakers of this land. Without Indigenous sovereignty, our climate response will always be incomplete.
Majadi Baruti is a climate justice organizer with PUSH Buffalo.