L.A. Mayor Karen Bass released a new plan Thursday that sets goals for the city to combat climate change and build a warmer future.
bass’ climate action plan Called for doubling local solar energy in Los Angeles by 2030 and reducing fossil fuel use in buildings and city buses.
It outlines how the city wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the Port of Los Angeles and LA International Airport. And it sets goals to reduce water use, address risks from extreme heat, and expand parks and green spaces in cold areas and restore natural habitats.
“Cities are on the front lines of the climate crisis. Angelenos are living with the impacts every day – from devastating wildfires and floods to rising temperatures and longer heat waves,” Bass wrote in a letter announcing the document. “This plan shows how Angelenos will benefit from a resilient, carbon-free LA”
The mayor will talk about the plan Thursday at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys, where construction is underway on a new water recycling project. Under Bass, city officials decided double the capacity The project, which will turn waste water into 45 million gallons of pure drinking water per day, enough for 500,000 people.
Bass’s strategy expands on a previous plan called the LA “Green New Deal” created by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti. adopted In 2019.
LA City Comptroller Kenneth Mejia in 2023 called for a reboot about that earlier plan, saying it lacked clear metrics to track progress toward goals.
Bass’s strategy includes 14 objectives and more than 50 targets and actions, which he says are “designed to deliver concrete, measurable climate results.” Goals include:
- Increase renewable energy to 80% by 2030 and 100% by 2035.
- Converting all LA Department of Transportation buses to electric by 2028.
- Working with airlines and fuel suppliers at LAX and Van Nuys Airport to increase sustainable fuel use by 28% by 2030.
- Passing a new ordinance this year to ban new oil and gas drilling and creating a process to end existing oil and gas extraction in the city.
- Installing 120,000 new electric vehicle chargers by 2030.
- Increasing local water use in LA so that the city becomes 70% locally dependent by 2035, and reducing average water use per capita by 25% by 2035.
- Establish five new parks by 2030 and 10 by 2035, and significantly increase the city’s tree canopy by 2035.
The city is also working towards the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2045.
BASS’s strategy provides direction for the city to tackle climate change. But like its predecessor, the Green New Deal, the plan will not be legally binding.
City Administrative Officer Matthew Szabo is working on a separate climate action and adaptation plan, intended to be consistent with the state requirement that local governments incorporate climate adaptation and resilience strategies into their general plans.
TIME staff writer Blanka Begert contributed to this report.
