London has been celebrated for its innovative work to tackle climate change, becoming UK’s first National Winner in WWF’s One Planet City Challenge.
Over half of the world’s population now lives in cities, generating over 70 per cent of the world’s climate footprint. But cities are also leading the way in fighting climate change through progressive policies and programmes to drive down emissions. Here are just a few examples of the work we’re doing in London.
Why London?
The Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has been clear that we’re facing a climate emergency and we need to act quickly to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. In his Environment Strategy, Sadiq set out how London will tackle this with ambitious targets to become a zero carbon city and one of the greenest cities in the world. Since it was published, we have made great progress in transforming London’s environment and demonstrating how cities can lead from the front on climate action. London’s emissions have fallen by 33 per cent from 1990 levels, and we’re one of the few cities globally that has reached peak greenhouse gas emissions.
Low carbon buildings and energy
London’s buildings are responsible for around three quarters of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. Our programmes are making homes and workplaces more energy efficient and are ensuring London is supplied with more green energy. So far, we’ve supported 32,000 homes with energy efficiency measures, leading to carbon savings across the capital.
We are the only major city in the UK to have a zero carbon standard for all new homes built in the capital. In 2018, new developments in London achieved carbon savings 39 per cent higher than required by national standards. These developments also resulted in nearly £7 million of investment in solar PV panels. A similar policy for commercial buildings will be rolled out when the new London Plan is published.
The Mayor has also launched a new energy supply company, London Power, as part of his commitment to help Londoners save on their bills, tackle fuel poverty and supply the capital with more renewable energy, London Power offers 100 per cent renewable electricity and an option to offset emissions from home gas usage and plant trees. Any profits made by City Hall will be reinvested into delivering the Mayor’s social and environmental goals.
Clean transport
One of the Mayor’s key priorities is protecting Londoners and especially children from toxic air pollution. And we have made great progress in recent years, with bold policies including introducing electric buses and no longer licensing new diesel taxis, meaning London now has over 3,500 electric taxis. Central to the Mayor’s air quality plans is the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) which helped reduce roadside nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by 44 per cent in central London from February 2017 to January 2020. And we’ve seen a reduction of 44,100 older, more polluting vehicles on an average day.
New data shows the number of schools located in areas exceeding legal NO2 pollution limits has reduced from 455 in 2016, to just 14 in 2019. To bring further benefits to London’s air quality, the ULEZ will be expanded up to the North and South Circular roads in October 2021.
The Mayor is also working towards powering the tube with renewable electricity. TfL is London’s single largest consumer of electricity and the Mayor is aiming for all electricity requirements for the Underground to be met via zero carbon sources by 2030.
As part of London’s response to COVID-19, the Mayor has transformed parts of the city into car-free zones through his Streetspace Plan. This helps to enable safe social distancing on public transport whilst London continues to tackle COVID-19 and helps avoid a car-based recovery.
Global collaboration
Globally, London’s climate leadership has been well recognised. London is one of only 11 global cities to develop a 1.5C compliant climate plan in line with the Paris Agreement and the Mayor has been instrumental in working with other cities globally on joint climate solutions through C40. This includes establishing the C40 Cities Divest/Invest Forum with New York and the C40 Air Quality Network with the city of Bengaluru.
Divestment and green investment
The £500m Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Fund provides funding options to deliver new low carbon technology or upgrade existing low carbon infrastructure to public buildings. It is, to date, the UK’s largest ever dedicated investment fund for urban energy efficiency measures. We’re also working with the Green Finance Institute, to maximise private capital investment in low carbon projects, creating jobs and reaching to net zero faster.
London has made great strides in divesting its pension funds and assets from fossil fuel industries that directly contribute to climate change. We have divested City Hall assets and been working with our pension fund, the LPFA, to divest from fossil fuels. We’re proud to have only 0.18 per cent of assets invested in extractive fossil fuels, a reduction of 80 per cent since we started the journey. Sadiq has also called on London boroughs, and local organisations to follow his lead and divest from fossil fuels and scale up green investment.
We have also influenced others worldwide. Together with Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio and C40 we launched Divest/Invest, a global initiative for cities on divestment. In September, 12 global cities signed the ‘Divesting from Fossil Fuels, Investing in Sustainable Future’ declaration which cites the work already undertaken here in London. And we have worked with C40 and New York to launch a Divestment Toolkit which provides guidance to support other cities in divestment and increasing sustainable investments.
Adapting to a changing climate
The ten hottest years on record have occurred since 2002, so it’s vital that the city’s infrastructure is prepared to deal with future heatwaves. That’s why we have published studies and guidance focused on reducing risk of extreme heat on the elderly in care homes and young children in early years settings, who are less able to adapt quickly to control temperatures. This summer we also launched a network of ‘cool spaces’, recommended places for Londoners to go during a heatwave to cool down.
Trees and green spaces play a key role in cooling the city as well as providing numerous environmental and health benefits. Through his Greener City Fund, the Mayor has supported hundreds of projects to make London greener, including planting 280,000 trees, with a further 5,000 street trees due this year. Projects supported by the fund have created or improved over 400 hectares of green space in the capital, and a new project to create two new woodlands will see an additional 85 hectares of accessible green space, planting close to 140,000 trees in the Green Belt.
A green recovery
The Mayor has taken new steps to ensure London’s recovery from COVID-19 is green and integrates the climate emergency. This includes establishing a Green New Deal for London which will focus on creating jobs in the low carbon economy to address job losses, tackle the emergency and address inequality.
In practice, the green new deal means how we:
- Get London’s buildings to net zero emissions
- Modernise our public transport, make our city greener and better able to cope with the impacts of a warmer climate
- Build the economic, industrial and political foundations so London’s green economy can grow. This is vital if we are to meet the city’s climate targets by 2030
Following the recent approval of the Green New Deal mission by the London Recovery Board in September, London is one of only three cities with a Green New Deal (alongside New York and Los Angeles).
Read more about the One Planet City Challenge and the other winners worldwide.