2017-07-05 ClimateAwards2017Winners

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First Place Award Winners - LARGE CITY Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia Clean Air Action Plan The Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) is a landmark air quality plan that established the most comprehensive strategy for reducing port -related air pollution and health risks, while allowing port development, job creation and economic activity to continue. The CAAP is a joint plan of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and was developed with the cooperation and participation of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, California Air Resources Board and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Air pollution from port -related trucks, cargo -handling equipment, ships, and trains has a significant impact on the local community. The South Coast Air Basin, where the port is located, has some of the worst air quality in the nation, and the port contributes to roughly four percent of the region's ozone. Additionally, these sources result in greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to global GHG impacts. In 2015, these sources generated 849,000 metric tons of GHGs. Implementing the CAAP required significant cooperation from private industry and governmental partners. The port does not own or operate any of the equipment that causes the pollution, and it is not a regulatory agency so it has limited tools to compel private equipment operators to comply. As a result, the port has to rely heavily on the use of incentives and cooperation with the private industry. One example of this innovation is the Green Flag Program, which rewards ship operators for voluntarily slowing down their ships and cutting emissions as they near the port. The Port offers financial incentives and public recognition for companies that participate in this program. Roughly 98percent of ships participate in this highly successful program. Since 2005 (the first year the port began regularly tracking its emissions), GHGs decreased 14 percent. The port saw a reduction of 107,874 tons of CO2e between 2005 and 2015. That's the equivalent of taking 22,800 cars off the road in one year. The CAAP was the world's first comprehensive air emission reduction plan from a seaport. Since its adoption, the plan and its associated strategies have served as a model for other ports around the world. Ports in other countries and throughout the United States have started to develop their own emission - reduction efforts, and even U.S. EPA has launched a ports initiative to encourage similar plans at other ports. The CAAP strategies have been financed by private industry, government grants, and the port's own revenues. To comply with the "Clean Trucks Program," for example, which banned older dirty diesel trucks, the private trucking industry spent nearly $1 billion of its own capital on newer, cleaner vehicles. The port also has secured nearly $50 million in state and federal grants to help its operators purchase cleaner equipment, to demonstrate emerging technologies, and to install wharfside infrastructure that allows ships to plug into the electrical grid while loading and unloading cargo rather than idling their engines. Lastly, the port has also used its own revenues to support these efforts. Since 2005, the community surrounding the port has seen a significant improvement in air quality and public health as a result of the CAAP and its strategies. Notably, cancer-causing diesel particulate matter is down 84 percent, with GHGs during the same period down 14 percent.