The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson and the Mayor of Beijing, Wang Anshun today signed a special Memorandum of Understanding between the two cities to exchange key information on science, technology and environmental issues, helping to drive improvements. Shared areas of interest will include greener electric bus fleets, measures to tackle air quality and energy efficiency programmes.
The unprecedented agreement underlines the already close working relationship the two leading global cities have enjoyed since signing a partnership agreement in 2006. New figures show London's thriving green economy has bucked national trends and continued to grow over the last five years with over 9,200 green businesses employing over 163,500 people. This growth is predicted to continue by approximately 6 per cent per year to 2030, which helps support the Mayor’s goal of London becoming one of the world’s most sustainable cities by 2020.
The Mayor is on the first day of a six day trade mission to China as part of his continued drive to create jobs skills and growth in the capital by promoting London as a major investment destination. The UK is the world leader in innovative vehicle retrofit technology. Following successful pilots the Mayor and Transport for London have fitted more than a thousand older London buses with devices, which cut PM10 by 77 per cent and reduce Nox emissions by 88 per cent. By working together similar groundbreaking measures can be extended to Beijing and other Chinese cities.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “London and Beijing have much in common including the shared challenges of creating a high quality urban environment, whilst providing for the needs of a growing population. Collaborating on key environmental issues will help keep our great cities at the forefront of new research and innovation, whilst improving city life for Londoners and Beijingers. I’ve been hugely impressed by Beijing’s commitment to electric buses and we are exploring how we can use similar buses in the capital to further reduce pollution and carbon emissions. I know Beijing has a keen interest in the air quality measures we are using in London to lower emissions and monitor pollution. I look forward to continuing a strong and fruitful relationship between London and Beijing governments.”
Mayor Wang Anshun highlighted the measures and policies of Beijing for tackling air pollution and Beijing’s determination to address the issue. He also emphasized the great potential for future cooperation in areas of environmental protection and technology between Beijing and London given their different development stages. Mayor Wang Anshun believes that the signed MOU will enhance the partnership of the two cities, and benefit the people of both cities respectively.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding the cities will:
1, Promote, encourage and support co-operation between enterprises in fields such as air quality testing, industrial pollution treatment, IT and energy vehicles and aeronautics
2, Initiate research projects for pollution prevention and treatment, strengthen academic exchanges and ties between research institute and experts of environmental protection.
Air pollution in Beijing is a major challenge that the city government is committed to improving. Beijing officials have already made visits to London to monitor Mayor Boris Johnson’s air pollution methods that have led to emissions of NOx in London being reduced by 20% and for PM10 and PM2.5 by 15%. These include tighter low emission zone standards, retiring the oldest taxis and cleaning up the bus fleet.
The Mayor Boris Johnson is keen to work closely with Beijing and manufacturers to accelerate the development and introduction of zero emission buses like electric buses in London. These will complement the bus fleet of hybrid buses being used in London, supporting the Mayor’s proposals for an Ultra Low Emission Zone in the centre of the city from 2020. A number of cities in China now have growing fleets of electric buses, and whilst many are single decker buses which do not work as many hours as London buses there is still much information London can reap from Beijing.
Notes to editors
Buses are a major source of pollution, responsible for nearly 30% of NOx emissions in central London. Our current plans to reduce emissions from the bus fleet focus on hybrid buses. We will have 1,700 on street by 2016 including 600 New Bus for London. For the Ultra Low Emission Zone we expect to have all buses in central London hybrid by 2020.
Mayor is on a six day trade mission to China. The visit is part of a series of trips that he is undertaking to key overseas markets, including the Gulf region and India, both of which he visited in the last 12 months. The aim of the visits is to attract foreign investment, promote export, create jobs in the capital ensuring London’s status as a leading global city, boosting cultural ties and building on the huge exposure London received as a result of hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Since the late 1970s China has experienced a strong period of rapid, sustained economic growth – averaging almost 10% a year over the last 30 years. In 2010 the country overtook Japan to become the world’s second largest economy, behind the United States. It is expected to become the world largest goods importer by 2014. London is the number one capital city for Chinese investment outside Asia over the last decade. It is the leading European capital for Chinese investment, and the world leader for corporate subsidiary HQs outside their own nation. In 2012, Chinese investment in Britain rose to $4billion, up 80% from 2011. London attracts 60% of all FDI projects from China into the UK. London also accounted for 80 per cent of all Chinese property investment in Europe over the past five years.
More Chinese tourists visited London than ever before last year – 104,000. That is up 38% from 2011 and up 100% since 2009. Visitors spent £140 million, up 60% from 2011, and up 150% since 2009. The number of Chinese people studying in London is also rising. It reached a record 15,000 last year, up by 12% from the year before. China remains London’s #1 market for international students, with numbers rising by 149% over the past 5 years. London has a bigger concentration of elite universities than any other major global city.
The Mayoral trips are supported by his promotional organisation London & Partners. London & Partners is the official promotional organisation for London. Our company attracts and delivers value to business, students and visitors. London & Partners is a not-for-profit public private partnership, funded by the Mayor of London and a network of commercial partners. Please visit www.londonandpartners.com for more information.