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Greenhouse gas emissions rose 18% in Long Beach over a six-year period, with car travel the single largest contributor, the most recent assessment of the city’s effort to combat climate change shows.
The data was released in April but gathered in 2021, a year before the city passed a sweeping plan required by the state to both prepare for the effects of climate change and do its part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Emissions in California and in the U.S., meanwhile, decreased by about 5% during the same time period.
As a port city, Long Beach was likely impacted by the pandemic more than other places, data shows. The Port of Long Beach — which conducts its own annual air emissions inventory — saw a 40% spike in emissions in 2021 over 2015, the majority of which came from record-setting cargo volume in the midst of the pandemic as people were ordering more goods and supplies online.
City officials said it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact causes for the 2021 rise in emissions, though “it stands to reason” that the rush for goods during the pandemic and the ensuing recovery from it played a role, said Meredith Reynolds, deputy city manager for Long Beach who oversees the city’s climate efforts.
“We know that we will need a lot more changes, and certainly a lot more investment in this area,” she said, referring to the city and, importantly, regional and statewide bodies that regulate and control funding for transportation and commerce.
The data
Similar to the state and country, the largest contributor to the city’s emissions was gasoline-powered passenger vehicles, according to the 2021 report.
Passenger cars in Long Beach spewed 822,070 metric tons of greenhouse gas into the air that year, accounting for a quarter of the city’s 3.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane emissions.
Diesel-powered trucks — a by-product of being so close to the nation’s largest port complex — contributed 350,892 metric tons of emissions to the city’s total. Aviation contributed another 130,526 metric tons of emissions.
Other large contributors were residential energy use (416,727 metric tons) and commercial energy use (567,697 metric tons). These emissions resulted from electricity, natural gas, fuel, propane and wood used to heat, cool, cook, manufacture products and more.
The city’s goal is to contribute no more than a total of 1.98 million metric tons of emissions, which is 40% below what 1990 levels are estimated to be. In order to achieve this, the city will have to cut emissions by about 4.5% each year between 2022 and 2030 — an aggressive goal that won’t be achieved by improved fuel efficiency and greener building standards alone, according to the city report.
What can be done?
The city has somewhat limited control over emissions — it can’t ban car travel, for example — but has focused on its powers related to land use, zoning and use of public infrastructure.
“We can’t demand people change behavior, but we can encourage it,” said Reynolds, the deputy city manager.
This has included allowing developers to build denser housing and commercial buildings near transit corridors, sometimes with little or no parking requirements.
It has also pursued various “road diet” projects — including the Broadway corridor, Alamitos Avenue and a potential future project on Shoreline Drive — that reduce traffic lanes and increase pedestrian and bike space, often to the chagrin of motorists.
Reynolds and Fern Nueno, the city’s climate manager, also pointed to a new bikeshare program that offers annual memberships to low-income residents for $5.
“We want to make it easy for people to take advantage of this,” Nueno said.
The city has also looked internally at what it can do as one of the largest employers, including replacing more than half its fleet of vehicles with newer models that run on renewable energy.
And, this Tuesday, the City Council will consider a proposal to buy into a solar energy farm run by a company called RB Inyokern Solar, which would allow the city to earn credits toward its Southern California Edison bill.
Additional measures will also be coming this year as part of the city’s budget process over the summer, Reynolds said.
Next steps
The city will conduct an emissions inventory every two years, using the 2021 analysis as a baseline to track progress.
If the Port of Long Beach is any indicator, the next assessment for the city may provide better news. In its survey of 2022, the port showed an overall 16% decrease in emissions over 2021, which officials credited to a 24% decrease in vessel counts and a higher percentage of trucks and container terminals using renewable fuel.
The goal for every jurisdiction in the state is to achieve “carbon net neutrality” by 2045, a term used frequently that takes into account removal of toxins in the air by tree and vegetation cover. Though these calculations are imprecise and outdated — the last tree canopy survey in Long Beach was conducted between 2013 and 2019 — the city reported that only 5% of its 53 square miles consist of forest land, grassland, cropland or wetland.
In 2021, the city’s tree canopy reduced its emissions by 4,616 metric tons, less than 1% of its total.
Efforts will continue, however, to improve Long Beach’s urban tree cover, both to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and protect against the damage caused by climate change from rising temperatures, which are exacerbated in lower-income parts of the city.
Last year, the city planted 649 trees, more than double than the prior year, officials said, and recently received a $1 million grant from the Department of Agriculture to further these efforts.
Residents in the city can request a tree be planted on their property. “It’s a very simple thing anyone can do,” Reynolds said.
Other behavioral changes, particularly when it comes to preferred modes of travel, will likely take time and convincing to change, she said.