Equity and Justice in City Climate Initiatives - Insights from Toronto, Mexico City and Los Angeles

Climate actions such as regulations, mitigation targets and social and technological innovations that foster equity and justice in sustainability transitions are receiving growing attention. Cities are leading the way. For example, Toronto adopted strategies to reduce community-wide emissions to net zero by 2040 and to navigate climate change and chronic stresses. Los Angeles plans a net-zero grid by 2035 and net-zero transportation, buildings, waste, and wasted water by 2050. While Mexico City lacks net-zero targets, it has a long tradition of localizing climate action, most recently as part of its solar, mobility and disaster risk programs. However, actions can (re)create pre-existing inequities in participation (procedural injustices) and the distribution of benefits and harm (distributional injustices) if they don’t redress past and current inequitable structures and legacies (recognition injustices). We present results from a comprehensive review examining how equity is integrated into city climate policies and initiatives; in particular, what equity and justice in sustainability transitions means by governmental and non-governmental actors in the cities of Toronto, Los Angeles and Mexico City; how it works (or doesn’t) on the ground, and how it relates to equity and justice. Since equity, justice, and sustainability transitions are often subject to incompatible approaches, this review will map a wide array of theoretical frameworks, understandings, theories of change, tools, and empirical data that are very diverse.