Johnson: "The current Mayor is relying too heavily on government action, and shying away from making cuts himself".

 

Today the Mayor launched the public consultation of his climate change adaptation strategy, asking for the feedback on what London can do to cope with more extreme weather. However, Darren Johnson is concerned that the focus should have been on the Assembly consultation draft of his climate change mitigation strategy, also launched today, which he feels does not do enough to try and fight future climate change.

Darren Johnson said:

"Adapting to climate change is extremely important. But, even more important is the need to reduce our carbon emissions to prevent further climate change. The Mayor’s strategy to fight climate change commits the Mayor to achieving less than half of what the previous Mayor’s plans did, and only a third of what is needed to reach his target of a 60% cut in emissions by 2025.

"The current Mayor is relying too heavily on government action, and shying away from making cuts himself. Furthermore, with the government’s current policies added in, the Mayor’s plans still come up short of achieving the 60% cut by 2025 in London.

"He has buried the news on the same day as launching the adaptation strategy, but the fact is the Mayor is not doing anywhere near enough to fight climate change in the capital".

Notes to editors

The Mayor’s Climate Change Mitigation Strategy commits him to cutting 9.2m tonnes of CO2 per year by 2025. Ken Livingstone’s Climate Change Action Plan committed the Mayor to cutting 19.6m tonnes of CO2 per year by 2025.

The current strategy places more reliance on the government’s commitments to decarbonising the energy supplied through the national grid, which are more ambitious now than in 2007 (when the previous Mayor’s plans were published).