Mayor unveils strategy for London green economy
Greenwise Staff
26th November 2008
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has outlined his vision of a green economy for the capital that will see a quarter of its energy needs supplied by combined heat and power plants within 20 years.
In his first major speech on the environment since being elected Mayor, Johnson promised an “unprecedented ramp-up” in investment in decentralised combined heat and power stations for London that would not only improve the city’s carbon footprint but also its energy security.
He told delegates at the Environment Agency’s annual conference in London, yesterday (November 25), that volatile oil prices and an economic downturn were coming together to make action on climate change a potential boom industry.
“Climate change is a major threat, not least to London,” he said. “But it also creates new opportunities for us as a city. I want to unleash the potential to create a thriving eco-economy in London, providing new ‘green collar’ jobs, skills and businesses,” he said.
As part of series of measures aimed at kick-starting London’s green economy, the Mayor said he would create 10 new ‘Low Carbon Zones’ in the city and help businesses reduce their energy costs through a major expansion of the existing Building Energy Efficiency Programme to all public sector buildings, which represent 25 per cent of all commercial carbon emissions in London.
He also promised the introduction of policies and procurement procedures through his own office to stimulate the large-scale uptake of new technologies, such as low-carbon outdoor lighting, LED traffic lights and electric vehicles.
On waste and recycling, Johnson said he would work with the London boroughs to unlock the “several billion pounds” worth of value in waste by converting it to energy, rather than burying it in landfill or burning it in incinerators, and would leverage "hundreds of thousands of pounds " additional investment for new waste technologies through his role as chair of the Waste and Recycling Board.
Johnson said the green economy was a rapidly growing, multi-billion pound global industry that London had to take advantage of in learner economic times.
“It includes opportunities to save on our energy bills in difficult economic times, opportunities for new jobs in rolling out low-carbon technologies and programmes such as building installed with measures to make them more energy efficient," he said.
The Mayor will publish an overview of his environmental programmes, including targets and budgets, in early 2009 with more detailed strategies on energy, waste and air quality due to published in the course of 2009.