LADWP’s GHG Goals In Line With Climate Science, Group Says

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets have been certified to be in line with a trajectory that is well below a 2° centigrade increase above pre-industrial levels.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power registered its greenhouse gas targets with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a global body that assesses GHG reduction targets to determine if they in line with the latest climate science.

The SBTi has established a set of criteria that all targets must meet in order for them to be validated as science-based.

In the evaluation, SBTi looks at “scopes” that determine the types of GHG emissions to be reduced. Scope 1 refers to direct GHG emissions. Scope 2 refers to energy purchases from a third party. Scope 3 refers to the purchase of goods and services other than energy from a third party, such as processing of sold products, capital goods, and employee commuting.

SBTi is a coalition of non-profit organizations including Carbon Disclosure Project, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute, and the World Wide Fund for Nature.

SBTi’s assessment showed that LADWP’s targets would reduce organization-wide emissions 69.3 percent by 2030 from a 2015 baseline, while providing approximately 21 percent more energy relative to 2015.

LADWP said that within its own operations, it plans to focus on reducing scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 71.6 percent per megawatt hour of electricity generated by 2030 from a 2015 base year; reducing scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 fuel- and energy-related activities related to sold electricity GHG emissions by 78.1 percent per MWh of electricity sold over the same target timeframe; and reducing absolute scope 3 fuel- and energy-related activities not related to sold electricity GHG emissions by 37.5 percent over the same target timeframe.

LADWP said it is the first municipally owned utility in North America to establish science-based emission reduction targets.

LADWP is a signatory to several international principles and initiatives, including the Carbon Disclosure Project, and has participated in CDP’s Climate Change program for six years, earning an A- grade in the CDP’s Climate Change Score Report.