- Louisiana approves its first climate action plan.
- The state targets 5GW offshore wind capacity by 2035.
Governor John Bel Edwards, Head of the Climate Initiatives Task Force of Louisiana, has approved the state’s first Climate Action Plan, which includes an ambition of 5GW of offshore wind by 2035.
The initiative, developed over a year and three months, aims to achieve the governor’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The plan comprises three priority pillars: renewable electricity generation, industrial electrification, and industrial fuel switching to low and no-carbon hydrogen. In addition, the program recommends a long list of actions, among which the creation of a renewable and clean portfolio standard targeted at 100 per cent of electricity generation from renewable or clean resources by 2035, with at least 80 per cent from renewables by 2050.
According to data in the plan, Louisiana’s power generation fuel mix in 2019 included 1.8 per cent renewables, while the main fuel was natural gas with 71.3 per cent.
The initiative also calls on the state to plan strategically for offshore wind development and proposes enacting an offshore wind power generation goal of 5GW by 2035. According to the governor’s announcement, the task force will meet in March to move forward with the plan’s implementation.