San Diego Republican mayor pushes plan to run on 100% renewable energy

California city's bipartisan push to embrace clean energy such as solar and wind while paring back greenhouse gas emissions may be a model for rest of the US

As presidential nominees Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, respectively, call climate change a "religion" or a "bullshit " total hoax" dreamed up by China, it is deeply unfashionable for any Republican to take the issue seriously, let alone push for radical reforms to remedy it.

Kevin Faulconer, the mayor of San Diego, could therefore qualify as one of the most outlandish, as well as green-tinged, Republicans in the US. Faulconer has thrown his weight behind a binding plan to make San Diego run on 100% renewable power by 2035 - the largest American city to have such an ambition.