San Diego Explained: How the City Will Achieve its Bold Climate Dreams

By Kinsee Morlan.

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council approved the final draft of the Climate Action Plan, a bundle of small environmental policies intended to result in big change.

The plan makes a legally binding pledge to cut greenhouse emissions in half and switch the city to solely renewable energy by 2035. While other cities have adopted similar plans, San Diego is the biggest city in the nation to commit to this kind of ambitious undertaking.

The lofty goals of the new plan will be achieved, in part, by changing future development patterns to spur a dramatic increase in the number of people who walk, bike or take public transit to work.

But some of the newly adopted policies could also open the city up to lawsuits.

In this week’s San Diego Explained, VOSD’s Andrew Keatts joins NBC 7 San Diego’s Catherine Garcia to further discuss the plan and the challenges it may present to the city.