London’s population is growing rapidly and that means radical moves are needed to make even greater cuts in carbon emissions.
Matthew Pencharz, Environmental and Political Advisor to the Mayor of London, Greater London Authority (GLA), told the London-hosted B4E Climate Summit that the city is under huge pressure thanks to this unexpected growth.
“Since the (current) Mayor was first elected five years ago, between 400-600,000 more people than anticipated are living in London… a lot more than we had expected.
“Our current projection is that we could have another million people in London by the end of the decade, so the targets that have been set to reduce our carbon emissions by 60 per cent from a 1990 baseline by 2055 become all the more challenging.
“We need a big investment in low carbon transport and we do hope that the Mayor’s announcement of an ultra-low emission zone in Central London by 2020, subject to feasibility studies by Transport for London, will really kick start the ultra-low emission vehicle market.”
A first step to moving to an ultra-low emission zone will come in the middle of this year when the discount on congestion zone charging – based on CO2 emissions – will be tightened. “This will effectively drive out diesels from the centre to improve the air quality for those living and working there,” he said.
Thanks to this reduction, the case for Londoners to change to an electric vehicle is now even more compelling. And the issues London is facing today are likely soon to be repeated in other cities across the world. After all, according to the UN, 70 per cent of the global population will live in cities by the year 2050 and that means the greening our cities is accelerating faster than ever.