London Climate Change Action Plan
Greens in London have been credited with showing the way during the launch of ‘Action Today to Protect Tomorrow’, a detailed plan to slash London’s carbon emissions by 60% within 20 years.
By Richard Scrase
The Mayor personally credited Green Assembly members Darren Johnson and Jenny Jones for ensuring climate change has remained at the forefront of the Assembly’s agenda and invited Green Party Principal Speaker, Siân Berry, to the launch of the plan and to write a foreword to the 232 page report. Amongst many detailed measures which Londoners will be offered are cut-price loft and cavity wall insulation which could cut £300 a year from fuel bills by making homes more energy-efficient. The radical but realistic nature of the plan can be seen in the target for 25% of London’s electricity supply to be from local combined heat and power systems by 2025.
Without action, London’s carbon emissions will grow from 44 million tonnes to 52 million tonnes by 2025. To stabilise London’s emissions in 2025 at 60 per cent below 1990 level means that by 2025 London must produce 33 million tonnes less of CO2 than its current levels - an annual emissions reduction of 4 per cent a year. 20 million tonnes of this reduction can be achieved through the actions set out in the plan but a further 13 million tons requires additional national and international action.
Siân Berry, Green Party Principal Speaker, said: “This action plan cannot be implemented too soon. Greens in London will be working hard with the Mayor to make sure that the ideas in the plan are actually brought in, not left on the shelf marked ‘fine words.”
“We are one of the cities most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In the past six years, the Thames Barrier, built to defend London from flooding, has been raised a staggering 56 times, compared with just three times in the first six years after in it was built in the 1980s.We can lead the way with our actions in London, but curbing aviation growth and bringing radical policies like personal carbon allowances are down to central government. We need to see a real change at
the top.”
