Plan advances in Los Angeles for Climate Emergency Mobilization Department

The Los Angeles City Council recently approved on a 13-0 vote to move forward with a plan to establish a Climate Emergency Mobilization Department.

The action directs city staff to draft a plan to establish the department, including what authority it would have over other city departments, and the feasibility of creating a stakeholder commission that would oversee it. The motion was introduced following a series of wildfires that hit the region in December, causing severe damage in many areas.

Council members linked the fires to climate change and said the time for bold action to combat climate change had come. A lack of environmental leadership out of Washington, D.C., means cities must take matters into their own hands, one councilor said.

The council’s action builds on a program by the advocacy group The Leap that wants to transition the city to carbon-neutrality by 2025.