The city of San Diego has adopted an updated Climate Action Plan, one that aims to reach net-zero emissions by the year 2035, among other changes.
The road map also plans to phase out the use of natural gas in San Diego homes.
Mayor Todd Gloria joined Midday Edition Thursday to talk about why the updated plan is important for San Diego.
"The changes that we envision in this Climate Action Plan are actually less impactful than those that we anticipate will happen because of our changing climate. So, in order to get to our new goal of net-zero emissions by the year 2035, we have to electrify most of our city. We have to adopt more renewable energy," Gloria said. "All of these things together, we believe, can help us meet these emission-reduction targets that will help reduce the worst impacts of climate change."
Gloria also shared some of the city's plans to increase the amount of affordable housing in the city, as part of his administration's Homes for All of Us initiative. One of the Mayor's proposals seeks to repurpose commercial properties in the city for residential use.
"What we envision is providing more incentives to actually encourage property owners and builders to go in and turn those properties into the housing that we so desperately need. I hear often from San Diegans, their concerns about where some of this new housing will go, and there seems to be a heavy consensus that this stuff should be focused in our commercial corridors," he said.
