As Connecticut experiences more intense weather events that cost taxpayers millions, environmental advocates are asking lawmakers to introduce new legislation that would create a climate superfund, with the state’s top polluters contributing.

Based on traditional superfund laws, climate superfunds would force the largest emitters to pay into a fund based on their fair share of emissions over the past few decades. The revenue would then be used for climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, according to Make Polluters Pay. Advocates noted that New York and Vermont implemented similar climate superfunds over the past few years

New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act, first put into law in 2024, requires major fossil fuel companies to pay $75 billion over 25 years to fund climate change adaptation and infrastructure projects, according to Make Polluters Pay. Other state’s are also looking to create similar funds to hold big oil companies responsible for what they say are “environmental injustices” enacted over decades.

Dozens of climate activists rallied Wednesday at the State Capitol to urge lawmakers to adapt a similar superfund. Members from Sunrise New Haven, Sierra Club of Connecticut, and the CT Zero Waste Coalition spoke to a crowd who braved the cold to attend the rally. Holding signs that read “Fossil Fuels Make Us Sick” and “Make Fossil Fools Pay” advocates said they are hopeful that legislation will be signed this session.

“Young people are inheriting a climate crisis that we did not create, and we are the ones forced to live with the consequences,” said Sydney Collins with Sunrise New Haven. “A climate superfund is about making the biggest polluters pay for the damage they’ve caused instead of passing the costs onto our generation. This is a necessary step to create a more livable and affordable future for us young people where we can pay for and repair the damages undone onto our communities.”

Officials say the most significant danger to Connecticut’s environment remains climate change as the state gets warmer and dryer on average, according to a 2024 report. The shift in climate also means more frequent severe weather events.

Temperatures in Connecticut are rising, with the average temperature for 2024 above the average annual temperature of approximately 50 degree Fahrenheit, according to the report. In 2024, 23 days saw temperatures greater than 90 degree Fahrenheit. The number of days with high temperatures was 52% greater than the average from 1960 to present.

The Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaption recommends that Connecticut plan for up to 20 inches of sea level rise in Long Island Sound by 2050. The same group said that building infrastructure like seawalls to protect communities against rising sea levels and flooding by 2040 will cost Connecticut a minimum of $5.3 billion.

A climate superfund would be used to also mitigate against future disasters like flooding from rising sea levels, advocates said.

“It’s time that those companies who are responsible for and have profited from climate pollution pay for its consequences,” said State Rep. Steven Winter, D-New Haven. “The status quo is that Connecticut taxpayers alone bear the costs of responding to increasingly frequent and severe disasters. That’s not fair and it must change. We need to join other states in holding fossil fuel companies accountable and make polluters pay.”

According to Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, more than $10 million in federal disaster assistance was approved in 2024 for thousands of Connecticut households damaged in a historic August rainfall that brought fast moving flood waters. Intense rain in 2024 was followed by an unusually dry months-long spell that shattered records.