On Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council approved a long-awaited, 875-page plan to face the existential threat of climate change.
The Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP)—renamed to the Long Beach Climate Action Plan—has been in the works for over five years and creates a framework for the City to prepare for the impacts of climate change, including extreme heat, air quality, drought and sea level rise.
One of the goals of the plan is to meet the statewide target of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. The plan also sets an aspirational goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2045—a reduction of 1.5 metric tons of GHG emissions.
Long Beach’s current emissions come from the following sources: 26% from stationary energy from residential, commercial and industrial buildings; 25% from manufacturing and construction; 44% from transportation, including vehicles, buses, trucks and aviation, not including port emissions; and 6% from waste, according to the plan.
The plan calls out over 50 potential actions the city could take to prepare and adapt to climate change such as: increasing the use of solar power, expanding the urban forest, expanding green infrastructure, creating more cooling centers and diverting organic waste from landfills.
“This is not a perfect plan. This plan does not address everything that is in front of us and the need we have as a community, but it is an enormous step forward,” Mayor Robert Garcia said.
Even with a lengthy report, many residents criticized the council for their slow movement to action and questioned the true strength of the CAAP.
“CAAP is climate appeasement, a strategy meant to appear practical in the short term that will eventually doom us all,” said Anna Christensen with the Los Cerritos Wetlands Task Force and the Sierra Club. “CAAP’s baby steps will never get us to the climate goals essential for a sustainable city or planet.”
Central, West and North Long Beach experience some of the highest pollution impacts in California. Many areas in Long Beach are worse off than 95% of the state, according to CalEnviroScreen data. Proximity to freeways and the port, which creates substantial emissions from its trucks and ships, contribute to worse health outcomes in these areas.
“Of all the climate stressors Long Beach will face, extreme heat is expected to be the greatest health threat to the largest number of residents,” the plan states.
During public comment, many residents said the plan doesn’t do enough to combat emissions related to oil and gas extraction in Long Beach, nor does it commit to moving Long Beach away from its reliance on oil funds. Instead, the document includes broad plans to fund oil well abandonment.
The City also plans to transition all of its departments into fully renewable energy in phases that stretch to 2030. The Water Department, one of the city’s largest Edison companies, will make the switch this year, according to City Manager Tom Modica. Edison already provides the option for fully renewable energy to businesses and residents, but they are more expensive than carbon-based energy options.
The report states that funding for future climate initiatives “have not been identified yet” and that cost estimates will come back to the council as actions are pursued. The city will monitor its GHG emissions on a bi-annual basis and plans to create a dashboard to share that information with the public.
Long Beach plans to fund an Office of Climate Action in this year’s budget, a nine-person team which will be tasked with improving the CAAP, adding concrete timelines and implementing its plans, according to Garcia. The City has also set up a Youth Climate Corps, which provides job training and workforce development in the green jobs sector.
Residents can read the full CAAP—which was renamed the Long Beach Climate Action plan during the meeting—here.
