Standing underneath a weave of highway arteries where his grandparentsвЂ™ home was demolished decades before to make space for traffic, Lopez said he felt LA leadersвЂ™ climate policies had long fallen short, leaving frontline communities to navigate the worst effects of the crisis while they boast big achievements. The port of Los Angeles contributed more than 903,200 tonnes of CO2 in 2020.

вЂњWe all live in the same city, but we are in completely different worlds.вЂќ вЂњThere are many LAs and I donвЂ™t live in the LA that you have in your imagination,вЂќ said Mark Lopez, a born-and-raised Angeleno and environmental justice advocate who lives in East LA. But decades of discriminatory redlining and infrastructure planning have left areas people of color call home to bear the burden. Geography plays a part in the cityвЂ™s struggles with smog and heat. The highest temperatures are expected to increase by 5.4F on average across LA county, according to a 2021 climate vulnerability assessment. Meanwhile, punishing and dangerous heat already bakes the city, especially in areas where there are too few trees to offer a reprieve. This year, the American Lung Association awarded the Los Angeles/Long Beach region its top spot for highest ozone pollution and gave LA county failing grades across the board. By the end of 2020, there had been 157 bad air days вЂ“ more than any year since 1997, the Los Angeles Times reported. Traffic contributes most to the problem across LA county, according to its public health department, but congestion at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles during the Covid crisis that left ships idling offshore spiked pollution. LA still suffers from among the worst air quality in the US. They have banned new oilwells, more than doubled the use of renewable energy sources and decreased greenhouse gas emissions by 36% from where they were in the 1990s, according to the latest annual report. The city has already funded new rapid transit lines, has electrified buses, and implemented a clean truck fund that imposes a fee on trucks entering and exiting container terminals. We all live in the same city, but we are in completely different worlds Mark Lopez

вЂњMoving from 15% local water to 70% local water just in 15 years will be as big as anything LA has done, including building an aqueduct 100 years agoвЂќ Garcetti told the Guardian.

Together, the efforts are promised to make LA the first large city in the nation to operate on clean energy, prevent 1,650 premature deaths, add 400,000 new green jobs and build resilience into LAвЂ™s water supply as drought conditions worsen. Under the outgoing mayor, Eric Garcetti, the city made climate a priority, launching a вЂњGreen New DealвЂќ composed of 445 different initiatives to get LA to a вЂњzero carbon grid, zero carbon buildings, zero carbon transportation, zero waste and zero wasted waterвЂќ, as stated in the latest annual report. LA has made big strides in environmental policy in the past decade.

To secure LAвЂ™s grip on climate leadership, the new mayor will have to bridge the cityвЂ™s immense divides. The temperature is rising, water is waning and LA smog is nearly as renowned as the world-famous Hollywood sign.ДЄlthough many voters have cited climate as a priority, the topic has taken a backseat in the heated mayoral campaign, crowded out by what candidates and constituents have cast as more pressing problems, like the homelessness crisis and crime.Д«ut addressing the environmental problems LA faces will require more than embracing the status quo, experts say. But the progressive metropolis вЂ“ home to nearly 4 million people вЂ“ faces environmental challenges that will only get worse as the climate grows more extreme. Los Angeles has built a reputation as a leader on sustainability and climate solutions, setting first-in-the-nation goals to decarbonize and plans to achieve them.

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