Bright Roofs, Big City: Keeping L.A. Cool Through an Aggressive Cool-Roof Program

UCLA Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment, Pritzker Brief No. 2, October 2011

UCLA School of Law Research Paper No. 12-12

14 Pages Posted: 25 Jun 2012

See all articles by Cara Horowitz

Cara Horowitz

Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law

Date Written: 2011

Abstract

Los Angeles is one of the best places in the country for a relatively easy and cost-effective measure to improve public health, combat climate change, reduce energy demand, and save money: installing cool roofs. This Pritzker Brief makes a case for accelerating the adoption of cool roofs in L.A. and recommends law and policy strategies for achieving that goal. Using a dataset of L.A. rooftops and some conservative estimates of energy savings, Cara Horowitz shows that L.A. residents could save $30 million a year if the city significantly improved its adoption of cool roofs on new and existing buildings. Other benefits would include improved air quality, lower urban temperatures, and a reduction in global warming equivalent to removing millions of cars from the road for a year.

Keywords: climate change, energy efficiency, cool roofs, green roofs, climate adaptation, urban air quality

Suggested Citation

Horowitz, Cara, Bright Roofs, Big City: Keeping L.A. Cool Through an Aggressive Cool-Roof Program (2011). UCLA Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment, Pritzker Brief No. 2, October 2011, UCLA School of Law Research Paper No. 12-12, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2089624

Cara Horowitz (Contact Author)

Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law ( email )

385 Charles E. Young Dr. East
Room 1242
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1476
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
91
Abstract Views
524
Rank
509,542
PlumX Metrics