The Green Party aim to "bounce back stronger" in the council election after a difficult Stormont poll last year.
Launching their election manifesto in Belfast, party leader Mal O'Hara said voters do not want a "rehash" of the Assembly poll.
He described his party as "leading the progressive vanguard of change" in Northern Ireland.
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"We fight the hard fight when ideas are unpopular or novel or potentially controversial, and once the hard work is done, others adopt them," he said.
The Green Party is running 37 candidates in the Northern Ireland local government poll on May 18.
In the last council election in 2019, the party doubled their number of council seats to eight.
But in the Assembly election last year, the Greens lost both their MLA seats to the Alliance Party.
Mr O'Hara said he did not regard the upcoming poll as a "do-or-die election" for his party.
He said people may have been "somewhat complacent" about the Greens last year and "thought we're safe", but since then the party has "new energy" and a "new wave of activists".
Speaking at the launch at Accidental Theatre, he added: "Greens across Europe have lost seats, have had bad elections and have bounced back stronger."
He said that as public awareness grows of the "scale of the climate and the biodiversity crisis which faces us, more and more people will understand that we are the authentic party of the environment".
He added: "And I think when we talk about a greener, cleaner, fairer Northern Ireland, that resonates with so many people here, and we hope to see that returned to us on May 18."
Mr O'Hara is fighting his first election as party leader since succeeding Clare Bailey after she lost her MLA seat in South Belfast.
He said voters do not want a "rehash" of last year's Stormont poll.
"I think in the last week of the election things certainly polarised, the narrative of a nationalist First Minister, the protocol certainly squeezed us in that last week in the minds of voters," he said.
"But this is a council election.
"People are going to look at the delivery of local council services.
"They're going to want a return to basics in terms of cleansing, investment in parks, public spaces, things that councils are responsible for – the living wage, community energy schemes, challenging our planning to be much stronger.
"That's the issues that matter to people on the door, rather than a rebrand or a rehash of the Stormont election last year."
Asked what makes the Greens different from Alliance, the North Belfast councillor reiterated his argument that his party is "left or centre-left" whereas Alliance is "centre or centre-right".
He said: "There are good people in all parties in Northern Ireland including obviously the Alliance Party and I have huge respect for Naomi Long as a political leader.
"But I would say that we're a very different party. I think we're a party of the left or centre-left. I believe Alliance are a party of the right or centre-right."
Mr O'Hara said the Greens are not a "one-issue" party, saying they have been ahead of the larger parties on social issues in the past.
He said: "I think with this manifesto we're offering innovative solutions, once again leading the progressive vanguard of change in Northern Ireland.
"Expect in five years to see this manifesto in everybody else's manifesto, as is always the way with our party.
"We fight the hard fight when ideas are unpopular or novel or potentially controversial, and once the hard work is done, others adopt them.
"We've seen it on abortion, we've seen it on marriage, we're seeing it now thankfully on climate and biodiversity, and we expect to see it on the issues that we're talking about in this manifesto."
The Green Party's manifesto includes proposals for councils to facilitate community-owned green energy schemes, as well as advocating for a citizens' assembly on drug policy.
They also want councils to pay all employees a living wage and "get back to doing the basics better" around street cleansing and tackling litter and graffiti.
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