Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday drew a sharp line between local and federal climate policy, voting to reaffirm the county’s commitment to international climate action. The board approved a motion that instructs staff to deepen ties with global climate networks and inventory progress toward Paris aligned goals. Framed as a response to a recent federal pullback from international environmental agreements, the move signals that L.A. County plans to keep investing in clean energy and moving away from oil drilling even as national policy shifts in the opposite direction.
“Rolling back environmental protections now would be reckless and dangerous,” Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath said, adding that “Los Angeles County refuses to abandon the standards that protect our air, our water, and our future,” in a statement on Horvath’s office. She cast the motion as a direct response to what she described as a federal abdication of climate leadership and asked county staff to spell out how L.A. County can plug into international efforts.
Under Horvath’s motion, the county’s Chief Sustainability Office is tasked with exploring observer status in the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, reaching out to national and international coalitions, and producing a 60-day inventory of county strategies and metrics, according to the motion. The document points to existing county work, including the OurCounty plan, the 2045 Climate Action Plan, and Climate Ready Communities, as the foundation for deeper international engagement.
Federal retreat and local response
That local push comes on the heels of a White House memorandum that ordered withdrawal from 66 international organizations, including the UNFCCC and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as detailed in a White House fact sheet. County officials told supervisors that the federal move only heightens the need for stronger cooperation among subnational governments and continued investment in resilience for the roughly 10 million residents the county serves.
Local clean energy and climate advocates quickly lined up behind the county. “Now, local and state governments must both lead the way and step into the void on behalf of Americans and future generations,” Matt Petersen of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator said, while Amy Holm of the Climate Registry called the county’s participation a way to “amplify the voices of the nearly ten million residents,” according to Horvath’s press release. Supporters said the county’s plan to plug into international networks could bring in technical assistance and partnerships even as federal engagement recedes.
County plans that back the motion
County officials point to the OurCounty Sustainability Plan as the roadmap for much of that work, and the Chief Sustainability Office keeps a public page that lays out the plan and its priorities, according to the OurCounty plan. The county’s draft 2045 Climate Action Plan is listed in state filings as its long-range emissions strategy, and Public Works is leading a Climate Ready Communities effort that focuses on resilience in the county’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, per state filings for the 2045 CAP and CivicSpark project listings.
Horvath’s proposal also reiterates existing county priorities that include phasing out oil drilling in unincorporated areas while expanding access to clean energy, a point local coverage of the vote emphasized. As reported by the Santa Monica Daily Press, supervisors directed staff to return with recommended next steps and any nominal funding needs to support participation in international forums.
Legal questions and what withdrawal means
Legal scholars have questioned whether the president can unilaterally pull the United States out of treaties that the Senate has ratified and have noted that the UNFCCC requires a one year notice period for withdrawal, a procedural wrinkle that complicates any immediate exit, The Guardian reported. That uncertainty has fueled calls for subnational players such as L.A. County to keep climate cooperation moving on a practical level while courts and Congress sort out the bigger constitutional questions.
The board’s motion instructs the Chief Sustainability Office to report back within 60 days with an inventory and recommendations, and the full motion is posted on the county’s document portal. County officials said that report will help determine whether the county pursues observer status, seeks membership in international coalitions and requests any modest budget increases to support that outreach.
