Cantrell offers vision for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and the math may follow
Author: Joshua Rosenberg
Mayor LaToya Cantrell unveiled a climate action plan on Tuesday that would see the city achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050, although it’s not entirely clear that the steps identified in the report would, by themselves, achieve the overall emission-reduction target. The plan, developed by the city’s Office of Resilience and Sustainability, seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in five areas, including transportation, energy and economic growth. “Vulnerable cities like ours around the world are leading the fight against climate change, and our updated Climate Action Plan sets ambitious goals to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by the mid-century,” Cantrell said in a press release on December 14, 2022. But while the goals are admirable and their implementation would certainly help the city reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it’s not necessarily evident they would, by themselves, lead to net zero status by 2050, Alex Kolker, associate professor at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, told The Lens. “It’s a lot of thoughts in the right direction, but the math isn’t fully there and all the plans aren’t fully there,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “My overall take home is there are good ideas in this, but they haven’t finalized all of the analyses and all of the the action plan to reach this net zero goal.”