The Los Angeles Public Bank can be an important tool for tackling the climate crisis and advancing the city’s sustainability goals. By financing clean energy infrastructure and prioritizing loans for renewable energy projects, the bank can help drive the transition to a low-carbon economy. It can also integrate environmental criteria into its investment strategies to align with the city’s long-term climate and energy plans.

Public banks in other countries have shown how this approach can work. In Germany, the Sparkassen network of public banks has played a major role in the country’s move toward renewable energy. Public banks there have provided 73 percent of the investment in the renewable energy sector. In Costa Rica, the worker-owned Banco Popular has supported a range of environmentally focused projects, including hydroelectric power, sustainable water systems, and energy-efficient building retrofits.

These examples show how a public bank in Los Angeles could invest directly in local clean energy projects and provide the kind of stable, low-cost financing that is often hard to secure through private lenders. By keeping capital local and aligned with public priorities, the bank can help the city meet its climate goals while supporting long-term economic and environmental resilience.