Longtime Green Party activist and Syracuse resident Howie Hawkins on Tuesday formally launched his bid for the Green Party’s presidential nomination.

The announcement, made in Brooklyn, comes several months after Hawkins this year formed an exploratory committee for a potential run.

“The climate crisis is an existential threat to humanity,” Hawkins said. “Real solutions can’t wait. We need World War II scale mobilization to address this threat. It requires an immediate nationwide ban on fracking and new fossil fuel projects. Instead we must mobilize our capital and knowhow for rapidly building out a clean energy system. It will create millions of jobs and build economic prosperity as well as climate protection.”

Hawkins is a longtime and well-known Syracuse-based activist, having run three times for governor in 2010, 2014 and 2018 as the Green Party’s nominee. Each time, Hawkins was able to secure the 50,000-vote threshold for the Green Party to retain its ballot status.

Hawkins’s agenda has also found its way of slipping into the mainstream, be it a ban on hydrofracking or a $15 minimum wage.