Cities Climate Action Summit 2024 – meet the speaker: Shelby Rust Busó, City of San Diego

SmartCitiesWorld (SCW): What is the single most important action cities can take to address the climate crisis?

Shelby Rust Busó (SRB): Collaboration is the most important climate action. This work cannot be done alone and climate action is multi-faceted; therefore, there really isn’t one single action that will solve this crisis. Each city will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a way that suits its needs in a particular way that most appropriately suits the needs of its people. For San Diego, we will have a combination of solutions to address mobility challenges; however, we will likely see the most GHG reductions through our decarbonisation of the built environment. These are complex puzzles to solve, but we are confident that through our partners and strong leadership, we can achieve our goals together.  

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SRB: I always enjoy hearing from colleagues working in the climate action space, especially to learn more about innovative approaches to solving complex issues. I’m inspired by new ideas emerging in the climate action space every day and can’t wait to hear ideas from other city representatives that are succeeding and even those that are failing. Sometimes we even learn from projects that are unsuccessful and I appreciate it when people share those stories, too.

SCW: Could you share a specific example of a successful climate initiative in your organisation that could inspire others?

SRB: Our team recently launched a low cost all-electric circulator to provide last mile connectivity in one of our coastal communities so that people could use transit to access the beach parks affordably. The circulator is funded by the establishment of a parking district that put in kerbside parking and the community supported the implementation of the circulator that is on-demand via a mobile application and was named “Beach Bug” after an engaging, fun online campaign. These types of projects really are a win-win-win for the environment, community, and the businesses which are exactly what we are looking to replicate. 

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