Los Angeles launches own ‘Green New Deal’

The city of Los Angeles has released what it calls ‘%$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external LA&#8217;s Green New Deal&#8217; false http://plan.lamayor.org/sites/default/files/pLAn_2019_final.pdf false false%>, pledging $860 million per year “to expand the transportation system”.

Electric vehicles are at the fore: it pledges an $8 billion upgrade to the city’s electricity grid by 2022, to help build the US’s “largest, cleanest and most reliable urban electrical grid to power the next generation of green transportation”.

The city authorities will “expand electric car sharing options” and support implementation of Metro’s first/last mile plans for the Blue Line, Purple Line and subsequent lines

The new plan “will put Los Angeles at the global centre of investment, innovation, and job creation in…green mobility”, the document says.

An update of the first Sustainable City Plan launched in 2015, it “augments, expands, and elaborates in even more detail LA’s vision for a sustainable future and it tackles the climate emergency with accelerated targets and new aggressive goals”.

The city aims to reduce vehicle miles travelled per capita by at least 13% by 2025, 39% by 2035 - and 45% by 2050. It also wants to supply 55% renewable energy by 2025, 80% by 2036, and 100% by 2045, and will convert all city fleet vehicles to zero emission “where technically feasible” by 2028.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said: “The generational battle against climate change is a moral imperative, an environmental emergency and an economic opportunity.”