Planning London’s future

Turn off office lights and external building lights at night. Street lights are good but all the blinding lights on the stairwells and external walls of blocks of flats have a high carbon footprint and are difficult for people who live opposite the blocks and need to sleep at night. Discourage all-night porch lights on houses.

Regulate the central heating in all shops. Some of the shops, particularly the hot air blasters in doorways, have an unnecessarily high carbon footprint. Most people complain the shops are too hot. We are already wearing coats if it is cold outside. Also encourage people to turn home central heating down or off. (We barely use our central heating anymore and have got used to it surprisingly easily.)

Over the last few years we have learnt to walk much more around London. It is such a nice city to walk in! Once you get off the main roads and walk in the parallel streets, it is calm and pretty and I always feel safe. London is much safer than most other cities. It is easy to forget that cars only arrived 100 years ago. Before that, the majority of people who ever lived walked everywhere that they ever went – very few journeys were made by horse or carriage. We are made for walking! It would be so nice to have completely traffic free walking and cycling routes.

London is already quite leafy, but it might be nice to set aside more areas in parks which are not mown and are fenced off for long grass and meadow flowers and insects. We could walk through them keeping to a path. And more orchards for the bees. There is too much mown grass which has a cooling effect, but not so useful for insects. Churchyards too should be encouraged to have fruit and nut trees over the paths – these trees are small enough to not damage the church and are useful for bees and are pretty. And more green rooves and green walls would be lovely.

By the way this entire survey is largely a waste of time and money as is clear to anybody but a complete half-wit from the paucity of respondents. It's time the mayor woke up to some of the real problems like crime, but above all to the poverty into which current insane energy policies at central and local government levels are helping to drive the poorest Londoners.

There IS NO GLOBAL CLIMATE EMERGENCY according to the IPCC and to my own 84 years of observation travelling to and working all over the world, let alone an emergfency nationally or one in London. Stop wasting time, money and hot air on this subject. Where appropriate prepare better locally for the impacts of the occasional extreme weather event as in the past.

We know the Thames Barrier is doing a lot but in 100 years, that might not be the case. How would we defeat the rising sea levels then? It’s difficult to make the entire world greener so while they do that, we still have to put 21st century precautions and plan them out for a flooding London. A big drastic change is needed to make and prepare for a flooded London. True mega-projects are needed for that scale. And that has not been in the cultural consciousness. Start working on that now!! Make changes in planning/building regulations to force developers to include flooding precautions. London WILL FLOOD. And we have to start being prepared for that culturally and in terms of engineering.

Action to address flooding obviously needs to be done on a London wide scale, in collaboration with the boroughs and Thames Water. At the moment we are too often responding after the crisis rather than preventing the problem. It is clear this is going to be worse and worse from now on. We need to understand how concreting over river areas can exacerbate flooding and address this, hopefully with more green spaces and less concrete. We need to work together to improve new buildings capacity to cope with extremes of heat and rain. We need to review all development schemes to ensure that they contribute positively to our ability to deal with the climate crisis, rather than adding to the problems.

We mainly use public transport and cycles (electric bikes have transformed our lives) but do sometimes need to use the car - I use it to deliver food parcels to isolated people, and to take stuff to the recycling centre. However we are planning to switch to an electric car, and we share the car with the rest of the family (one car, five adults). We would never use the car to go into the centre of the city - the Congestion Charge and parking difficulties have effectively discouraged this. We are doing our best to reduce waste and to insulate our flat. We need much better arrangements for recycling which enable all families and communities to do this routinely and feel confident that waste is being disposed of without damaging other societies in the UK or elsewhere in the world.

I'm poor and on disability benefits so have a low carbon footprint. Don't drive, don't fly, can't afford new clothes, appliances, furniture, or any food waste. Second hand for everything and as I don't really go out, I don't wash or change clothes everyday. Saves water and gas.
Terrified if miracle happens and allowed a safe home that it will be basement. Scared of floods after hearing on news about basement flat risk. Needs to be help for people in basement flats be safe.

Your list of things we'd like to see more of in London (cycling, trees, energy saving etc) was impossible only to pick 3 things from! We need them all - we can't afford to see this as a zero sum game. The trick is to connect all the measures in a way that brings people together, meets their needs and empowers them to become healthier and more content with city life.

We badly need smart road charging so that people pay the full cost of their journeys - where I live, that's massive air pollution from idling cars stuck in the rush hour. This needs to be linked to other measures such as low traffic neighbourhoods, better cycling, walking and public transport. Much better cycle facilities from bike lanes to bike parking to hire bikes throughout Outer London. Big programme to encourage cargo bikes which have massive potential to reduce traffic. Far, far more street trees to filter pollution and noise and make streets more welcoming.

A massive home insulation programme; and renewables at local level, e.g. solar panels and wind wherever practicable on council facilities, schools, housing etc. Change planning regulations so that people in conservation areas aren't banned from having solar panels or heat pumps.

Don't spend £2.2bn of our money on the 4-lane Silvertown Tunnel which will bring more HGVs and congestion to East & South-east London, past schools and homes in areas where poorer, diverse communities live - this is environmental racism. The tunnel wouldn't allow bikes, cargo bikes or pedestrians. It's impossible for cargo bikes to cross the river here, and by ordinary bike this is only possible if you are physically able to carry it up and down long flights of steps to the Greenwich foot tunnel (the lifts never work).

I think the Mayor's bold initiative to consult about extending the ULEZ is a terrific move. It's exactly the kind of courageous move that we need if we're to tackle the climate emergency. I'm sure he'll get so much criticism from so many quarters but he's walking the talk - not common amongst politicians at the moment.
Although I don't agree with Insulate Britain's tactics (because they affect people trying to earn an honest wage and leave the people who cause the damage, unaffected) the concept they're fighting for is correct and if we could launch a London-based home insulation project it would show our so-called national leaders, what they should doing across the country.

London is an unhappy, divided and unfriendly place. There is a lack of leadership from our mayor and ineptitude in local councils. Public transport is unreliable and dirty and over-crowded, councils ship recyclable plastic to Malaysia and Turkey, the streets are filthy and police turn a blind eye to crime.
What could we do about climate change and improve our local environment ?
1. Make it illegal for councils to ship Londoner's rubbish to other countries. recycle it in the UK.
2. Fine owners of vehicles with filthy exhaust fumes
3. Make councils use less pesticide and cut verges less often to support wild flowers .
4. Fine drivers of vehicles parked with their engine running
5. Reduce focus on cycling, and make streets safe for pedestrians - less litter, more visible police presence at night, and more and safer road crossings .
6. Fine owners of office blocks who leave lights and heating on at night- there is no excuse for this - this includes council and NHS buildings too.
7. Encourage residents of council /housing association accommodation to look after their own gardens, make wildlife gardens, and grow vegetables etc - reduce the need for operatives in vans who drive and use mowers and blowers which cause carbon emissions- and it would empower residents
8. NHS. Provide safe transport for night shift staff to get to and from work, thus reducing car use. Encourage doctors to prescribe fewer drugs where possible (which have a carbon footprint). Encourage more prevention - exercise, good diet etc and support for people from poorer communities to access this. A healthy population produces less carbon- so lets sort out this sick city!

All of the above. Massive retrofit programme required with public sector leadership & planning, not subsidies to cowboys. Very important to do home insulation & draught proofing BEFORE switching from gas to heat pumps. Must engage tenants/residents in those switches.
Plan for big reductions in air travel
Bring in road pricing with exemption for low-income hh; variable by vehicle type and time of day.
Stop demolishing council estates and other re-usable buildings.

We must renovate our properties rather than knock them down as this has a huge carbon footprint. We need more LTNs, cycle lanes, green roofs, solar panels, district heating and car free open spaces. People should have access to green spaces within walking distance of where they live. It should be more and more difficult to drive anywhere; active travel and public transport should be norm. Large car ownership ie SUVs should be penalised and second homes taxed to discourage empty properties. It is barking mad to build even more homes when so many lie empty or are only lived in infrequently. Took at look at Utrecht in the Netherlands if you want to see how it should be done.

We need more support for those who live in older houses to retrofit them to reduce energy usage. Much of the housing stock for 2050 already exists. It is part of our cultural heritage. But we now understand the problem we are causing by heating these houses with fossil fuels and how poor insulation makes the problem worse. VAT needs to be removed from insulating existing buildings. Financial support needs to be available to householders to retrofit their homes, such as replacing single glazed windows with double glazing. Builders need upskilling in how to retrofit older buildings.

London's biggest problem is that it is run down. Roads and streets are in an awful state and need fixing. Furthermore, the littler problem is huge. Food outlets should be required to supply waste bins and held responsible for the mess. More waste bins are needed and wardens to remind people to bin their waste and fine transgressors. This is far more important than any perceived climate extreme. Weather has always been extremely variable in this country, but if records for the past 250 years are consulted, it will be seen that variations have hardly differed over that period. Lets concentrate on what we can do.

By restricting traffic by making cycle lanes and restricting access is not the solution. People need to use their private cars to get around. Busses and trains do not go everywhere and the the London Mayor is creating a very unwelcoming and less functional city for all. He needs to be stopped.

In the beginning, I was all in favour of 'doing our bit' against climate change. But under the guise of that laudable battle it transpires that the whole thing has been exploited as an excuse to impose stealth taxes.

I now realise that what Russia, America, India AND China pump into our atmosphere in a DAY is more than the UK will in a lifetime. It doesn't mean we should ignore it, but it gives the lie to the excuses given for taxing, banning and otherwise interfering with productivity and economic activity we so desperately need. I confess that the outcome is that I no longer feel obligated to change what I do. I am paying heavily for it whether I do or I don't.

But am I the only person in London feeling this away? And might others not already doing so come around to that way of thinking as this goes on?