Los Angeles Launches Its Very Own Green New Deal To Combat Climate Change

America’s second largest major city is going green as Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti released a proposed municipal-wide Green New Deal on Monday, April 29 to combat human-made climate change as well as pollution. Garcetti’s proposals would need approval as well as finalizations from the local city council.

Los Angeles’s proposed Green New Deal would cover a wide variety of areas relating to energy efficiency, renewable energies, and transportation issues. These proposals include mandating all new buildings being net zero-carbon by 2030, mandating 100% of buildings being net zero carbon by 2050, achieving 100% of all cars being zero-emission vehicles by 2050, and planting at least 90,000 trees by 2021. The proposals also want to reduce personal vehicle travel on the roads and increase everyday travel by public transportation, biking, and or walking.

Conceived more than 10 years ago in 2007, the Green New Deal is gaining steam not only on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. but also nationwide and around the world. From New York City to Spain, the proposal to reduce climate change as well as other environmental inequalities is slowly gaining traction.