Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has unveiled L.A.'s Green New Deal. This four-year update to the city's original sustainability plan, released in 2015, expands and accelerates the city's climate action goals.

The plan accelerates targets to ensure 55% of L.A.'s energy is renewable by 2025 and 100% by 2045; increase the percentage of zero-emissions vehicles in the city to 25% by 2025 and 100% by 2050; convert all city fleet vehicles to zero emissions by 2028; ensure all new buildings are emissions-free by 2030; and ensure 57% of new housing units are built within 1,500 feet of transit by 2025. [...]

“The scale of our ambitions must meet the magnitude of this crisis. So we are doubling down with L.A.'s Green New Deal [...],” Garcetti wrote in the document. [...]

One of the elements that makes L.A.'s sustainability plan stand out from other cities' is the emphasis it puts on equity. Researchers increasingly have warned city leaders that low-income neighborhoods bear a disproportionate share of environmental burden, an idea reiterated in a report from Yale last year. Low-income areas often have less access to transportation, less green space and more carbon-producing infrastructure such as major road thoroughfares and industrial areas.

Implementing upgrades to improve [environmental] friendliness — such as converting residences to renewable energy or purchasing an electric vehicle — is often cost prohibitive for low-income residents. Prioritizing communities that bear the brunt of climate change puts L.A. on a path to equity with its climate action goals.