The London mayor’s climate change strategy should adopt the national 2050 carbon-reduction target of 80% as part of its plans to reduce C02 emissions more quickly in London, according to the London Assembly environment committee.
This should include a focus towards increasing modal shift through a more active encouragement of cycling and walking in both inner and outer London.
Responding to Boris Johnson’s draft strategy, the committee’s report said: ‘Given the leverage that the mayor has on transport policy and investment, key mayoral transport decisions should have an accompanying statement of the likely impact of carbon emissions.’
The draft strategy proposes a smaller emissions reduction for transport than for other sectors. The strategy plans for 2025 transport emissions to reduce by around 45% from the 2006 level, compared with cuts of 65% for homes and workplaces emissions.
The majority of London’s ground-based transport C02 emissions are due to private motor vehicles. The mayor’s environment adviser, Isabel Dedring, told the committee that London’s carbon emissions were low compared with other large cities around the world and, therefore, transport emissions were regarded as more of a problem for air quality than climate change.
The report went on to say that the mayor’s strategy should contain a set of options for further carbon-reduction measures so that the effect of the mayor’s strategy is sufficient to meet his 60% emissions-reduction target by 2025. It also called for annual C02 reduction targets and annual monitoring reports.
• Environment committee response: Mayor’s draft climate change mitigation and energy strategy
: http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Climate%20change%20mitigation%20response%20(final%20final).pdf