Signs Executive Directive to advance L.A.’s Green New Deal, chart a course to a carbon neutral future, and build an economy that works for every community in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — Mayor Eric Garcetti today kicked off a Decade of Action to confront and combat the climate crisis, with the signing of “L.A.’s Green New Deal: Leading By Example,” his 25th Executive Directive since taking office.
Joined by a diverse coalition of elected officials, environmental advocates, business leaders, and young climate activists, the Mayor laid out his vision for a carbon neutral Los Angeles and a firm commitment to environmental justice and equity. L.A.’s Green New Deal leads with bold action to zero out Los Angeles’ main sources of harmful emissions: buildings, transportation, electricity, and trash. Adopting this agenda will make the city a global model for how to create a more sustainable planet and an economy that works for everyone.
“The science could not be clearer and the stakes could not be higher. We must act this decade to save the planet and create a more equitable, prosperous, and healthy future for our children and grandchildren,” said Mayor Garcetti. “There is literally no time to waste — because what we do in the next ten years will determine the health of our planet and whether there’s a job, a paycheck, and a place for everyone in our economy.”
There is scientific consensus that we have until 2030 to halve global emissions, slow the rise of temperatures, invest in renewable sources of energy, and tackle climate change before the effects of this crisis become irreversible.
Mayor Garcetti signed the Executive Directive to accelerate the work of the Green New Deal, and adopt new steps and stronger accountability measures to align City department policies and procedures with the City’s climate objectives. The Directive includes measures to:
Develop a series of bus and light rail infrastructure improvements — such as bus only lanes, signal priority, and queue jumpers — to improve transit speeds by 30% by 2028.
Promote walking, bicycling and micro-mobility with a comprehensive Citywide network of active transportation corridors, including Class IV protected bike lanes, Class I paths along regional waterways, and Class III low-stress neighborhood bike improvements.
Encourage city pension boards to explore divesting from fossil fuel companies and investing in the green economy.
Mandate that all new construction, major upgrades, and retrofits of municipally-owned buildings demonstrate a pathway to carbon neutrality.
Accelerate the City’s bus fleet target to be entirely zero emission in time for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Support Metro in the development of a Congestion Pricing pilot program.
Expand low-income and multi-family household access to local clean energy.
Ensure that City Hall is zero waste by 2025.
Amend the City’s Green Building Code to ensure all new roofs and renovations are cool roofs.
The Executive Directive signed today is part of Mayor Garcetti’s 2020 Vision for L.A.’s Future, an agenda for serving, strengthening, and sustaining the aspirations and interests of our next generation. Beyond addressing climate change, the Mayor is focused on building a future for Los Angeles where everyone has the opportunity to earn a decent wage, afford housing that meets the needs of their families, take public transportation, and live in safety and security. 2020 Vision encompasses policies to provide housing and healing to unsheltered Angelenos; lift wages for low-income and middle class workers; prepare L.A.’s workforce for the innovations and economic trends of tomorrow; build out a robust transit network; and confront the affordable housing crisis.
For the full text of Mayor Garcetti’s 25th Executive Directive, please click here.
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SUPPORT FOR “L.A.’S GREEN NEW DEAL: LEADING BY EXAMPLE”:
“With this next phase of LA’s Green New Deal, the city is demonstrating yet again its extraordinary commitment to a healthier future for our children and grandchildren. On water rights, transportation, emissions reductions and other critical environmental questions, Los Angeles is setting a standard for the rest of the country.”— Paul Krekorian | City Councilmember, 2nd District
“L.A. is the most–watched City in the world, and it is up to us to provide the aggressive climate leadership that the rest of the country and the world can emulate. As chair of C40 Cities, the Mayor is better positioned than ever to make this happen. His Executive Directive today is an excellent step forward toward a safer climate.” — Paul Koretz | City Councilmember, 5th District
“Climate Change is the existential crisis of our time and I’m proud to join Mayor Garcetti in putting forward a bold new environmental agenda to help take it on. From divesting from shortsighted peddlers of fossil fuels, to rethinking how we build, to continuing the growth and maintenance of our urban tree canopy, we are telling Washington, and the rest of the world, that Los Angeles is not afraid to take bold action to save our planet.”
— Bob Blumenfield | City Councilmember, 3rd District; Chair of the Public Works Committee
“No matter who we are, where we live, nor what our financial status may be, each of us must participate in properly managing the environment around us. At the core of our human existence is our need for clean air and unpolluted water in our homes, lakes, streams, and oceans. Trash on our streets and roadways is flushed down the storm drains and travel into our streams and oceans. Litter and pollution hurt us all. A goldfish cannot live in polluted water, and a canary dies when its air becomes toxic. Our human survival is just as critical as those of fish and birds.”
— Pastor J. Edgar Boyd | Senior Minister & CEO, First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles
“We appreciate the leadership of Mayor Garcetti. Any Green New Deal Policy at the national, statewide, or local level must reflect the priorities of frontline communities and actualize the complex challenges of just transition because communities have been devastated by climate change and environmental injustices. We look forward to working with the city, the Mayor’s Office and our brothers and sisters in labor to overcome these obstacles, find common ground and identify win-win opportunities at the cross-section of equity, sustainability, and workforce development.”
— Darryl Molina Sarmiento | Executive Director, Communities for a Better Environment
“Increasing the tree canopy in Los Angeles is not only sound environmental policy, but it’s also a matter of fairness and equity. With 90 percent of our canopy concentrated in only 10 zip codes, Angelenos across the city are suffering from extreme heat, leading to health problems and even deaths that could be avoided by simply having more trees in their neighborhoods. I applaud Mayor Garcetti and his team for taking on this goal and protecting all Angelenos from the effects of a changing climate.” — Cindy Montañez | CEO, TreePeople
“The urgency of the climate crisis demands that all of us must act immediately to safeguard our future. We applaud the Mayor for leading this effort and look forward to working together to advocate for bold and equitable measures across Los Angeles and for generations to come.” — Mayor’s Youth Council for Climate Action
“We applaud Mayor Garcetti’s leadership and push for the City to take the lead on achieving the goals laid out in the Green New Deal pLAn. Now is the time to make strong investments in a low carbon grid and a clean transportation system that will attract and expand new innovative companies and jobs, leading to healthier communities.” — Mary Leslie | President, Los Angeles Business Council
“City leadership is integral to scaling climate solutions. The Sierra Club applauds Los Angeles’ commitment to using climate friendly building materials and to clearing gas pollution out of city buildings. These directives should inspire communities across the state to adopt bold climate policies to address the climate crisis while spurring demand for good paying local jobs and creating healthier communities.” — Michael Brune | Executive Director, Sierra Club
“Mayor Garcetti is a true EV visionary, and a former driver of the groundbreaking EV1. As Mayor, he has established some of the world’s most ambitious goals for zero emission transportation and profoundly shifting the way that people and goods move around Los Angeles, the city that created the car culture. We look forward to continuing to work with him to successfully implement his goals.” — Joel Levine | Executive Director, Plug In America
“We enthusiastically support Mayor Garcetti’s Executive Directive on leading by example. We believe that decarbonizing our real estate assets is critical to maintaining long-term value in our competitive markets, and we applaud the work being done at the Mayor’s office to complement and further our efforts.” — Sara Neff | SVP Sustainability, Kilroy Realty
“The board of the Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance, with members from fifty-seven neighborhood councils across the city, strongly supports L.A.’s leadership in confronting the climate crisis. We are particularly proud to be working with the City to develop a toolkit that will help neighborhood councils implement L.A.’s Green New Deal at the hyperlocal level.” — Lisa Hart | Chair, Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance
“I applaud Mayor Garcetti for focusing his entire administration to deliver clean mobility, safe streets, and inspired communities, and to make Los Angeles an international model for new travel technology and high quality of life.” — Hilary Norton | Vice Chair, California Transportation Commission; Executive Director, FAST and FASTLinkDTLA
“The climate crisis demands aggressive leadership. We support Mayor Garcetti’s efforts to transform Los Angeles into a model city for clean energy and sustainability.” — Michael Kadish | Executive Director, GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles
“We’re incredibly proud of Mayor Garcetti’s leadership and our City collectively as we embrace the building policies needed in this decade of action against climate change. Increased transparency around how we build our buildings combined with increased electrification of how we operate our buildings, while our grid moves to 100% renewable energy, will go a long way in reducing our local carbon footprint.” — Ben Stapleton | Executive Director, U.S. Green Building Council-Los Angeles
“We strongly support Mayor Garcetti’s authentic commitment to our sustainable future with Los Angeles leading our global community in innovation with concrete solutions being implemented. Zero waste for municipal facilities and working to bring clean electric power to our City through the building community is a major step in not only working to combat Climate Change, but a change for each and every citizen to feel empowered to be part of our sustainable economy.” — Debbie Levine | CEO, Environmental Media Association
“Leader cities are the front lines of a climate battle we can win when bold ideas become real actions. Mayor Garcetti and Los Angeles are taking real actions that matter on transportation commitments we need NOW. We will proudly work to help these strong actions succeed.” — John Boesel | President and CEO, CALSTART
“We applaud Mayor Eric Garcetti for doubling down on Los Angeles leading the way in tackling the climate crisis through signing his Green New Deal executive directive today, as well as his leadership as Chair of C40 and the Climate Mayors. LACI is proud to work with Mayor Garcetti in moving toward the bold targets in the Transportation Electrification Partnership’s Zero Emissions 2028 Roadmap, as well as creating an inclusive, green economy through LACI’s EV charging station job training, cleantech startup incubation, and other programs.” — Matt Petersen | President and CEO, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
“Thanks to the Mayor’s new directives on the Safe, Clean Water Program, the City will focus on green, nature-based solutions that save water and create green space in communities that need it the most. The Mayor is also leading the way on Zero Waste — here, at Heal the Bay, we have picked up over 2 million pieces of plastic trash at LA beaches and rivers, and we know we have to stop that trash at the source. Heal the Bay is committed to this vision of LA’s local water and zero waste future and together we will make it happen.” — Shelley Luce | CEO, Heal the Bay
