When the first 2015 Sustainable City pLAn was released, a commitment was made to annual progress reports and a major update to the pLAn every four years. With immediate and evolving challenges facing our environment and economy, a renewed commitment to action is needed now more than ever. We are facing a global climate emergency that must be solved with changes right here at home so that we leave behind a safe world for future generations.
L.A.’s Green New Deal is an expanded vision for our pLAn—securing clean air and water and a stable climate, improving community resilience, expanding access to healthy food and open space, and promoting justice for all—and for the future we have to build on behalf of our children and grandchildren.
Key Principles
First, a commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement and to urgent action with a scientifically-driven strategy for achieving a zero carbon grid, zero carbon transportation, zero carbon buildings, zero waste, and zero wasted water.
Second, a responsibility to deliver environmental justice and equity through an inclusive economy, producing results at the community level, guided by communities themselves.
Third, a duty to ensure that every Angeleno has the ability to join the green economy, creating pipelines to good paying, green jobs and a just transition in a changing work environment.
Fourth, a resolve to demonstrate the art of the possible and lead the way, walking the walk and using the City’s resources - our people and our budget - to drive change.
L.A.’s Green New Deal will guide our city’s transition to an equitable and abundant economy powered by 100% renewable energy. This plan will support the creation of hundreds of thousands of good, green jobs in all of our communities by:
Building the country’s largest, cleanest, and most reliable urban electrical grid to power the next generation of green transportation and clean buildings. With $8 billion in upgrades to our grid by 2022, $860 million per year to expand the transportation system, and billions more to build clean buildings, we will put Los Angeles at the global center of investment, innovation, and job creation in the green mobility and clean building sectors.
Educating and training Angelenos to participate in the new green economy. We will work with partners at all levels of our education system to foster the training and retraining necessary to move thousands of L.A. households into a thriving middle class built on good, green jobs.
Enacting sustainable policies that prioritize economic opportunity. We will mandate and incentivize the transition to a zero carbon city in a way that prioritizes the needs and opportunities of disadvantaged communities, ensuring that the new green economy fulfills the promise of a more just and equitable economy.
As with the first Sustainable City pLAn, L.A.’s Green New Deal was prepared with extensive input from stakeholders, including community organizations, businesses, academia, labor groups, and City departments. We have made every effort to reflect the most current viewpoints, priorities, and needs of the Los Angeles community. The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability also engaged with seven other global megacities—Boston, Durban, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, New York and Paris—in C40’s Deadline 2020 pilot program to develop and implement a framework for climate action that achieves L.A.’s pledge to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Our Climate Emergency
According to the world’s leading scientists, we have until 2030 – only 11 years – to radically roll back the emissions we have come to depend on in a carbon-based economy. The world must cut emissions by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050 to stop warming at 1.5°C. If we don’t, conditions will significantly worsen on earth for hundreds of millions of people. The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, was the world’s first collective response and commitment to avoid dangerous climate change and limit future temperature increases to 1.5 to 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
Based on our commitment to the Paris Agreement, this plan charts a new course for Los Angeles’ emission reduction targets – the 2019 Green New Deal Pathway – which calls for cutting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) to 50% below 1990 levels by 2025; 73% below 1990 levels by 2035; and becoming carbon neutral by 2050. By following the 2019 Green New Deal Pathway, L.A. cuts an additional 30% in GHG emissions above and beyond our 2015 pLAn and ensures L.A. stays within its carbon budget between now and 2050.
L.A. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Pathways
Accelerating L.A.’s GHG targets:
Emissions must decline everywhere, as soon as possible. The pace may vary depending on the opportunities and characteristics of each sector, but at the end of the day, L.A.’s Green New Deal puts our city on the road to a zero carbon future across the board.
- Zero carbon grid
- Zero carbon buildings
- Zero carbon on-road transportation
- Zero waste
- Dramatic reductions in manufacturing and industrial GHG emissions
L.A. Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector
Even with today’s best strategies and technologies, there are likely to be residual emissions in 2050, approximately 8.5% of our emissions today from sources such as air and sea travel and industrial energy use. New technologies will be needed, as well as carbon negative projects, such as urban forests, to potentially offset carbon emissions. As with the 2015 Sustainable City pLAn, L.A. will continue to review its progress and course-correct in the years to come.