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Green Party candidate for Mayor of London Jenny Jones today visited Wembley to meet local voters and launch her party’s policies on the environment, waste, recycling and energy.
Jones met voters to discuss how London could lead the world in addressing climate change.
Jones said: "By setting bold targets for our capital, we can ensure London is a model for the world in addressing climate change, reducing waste and securing our shared future.
"Although many Londoners grasp the importance of changing our way of life to protect our environment, our city still creates unsustainable levels of waste and pollution and consumes unsustainable levels of natural resources.
"The authorities must lead by example, and as Mayor I would set specific targets for the GLA group.
"But most importantly I would not just preach from City Hall, but offer concrete, practical assistance to all Londoners in reducing their energy bills, recycling more easily and waste less."
Jones’ said that as Mayor she would help the capital aim to meet four major targets by 2030:
1. Become a zero waste city.
2. Reach 80% recycling rates.
3. Reduce energy usage by half.
4. Generate at least a third of its energy within London.
She also promised to help Londoners in four key areas:
1. Making sure food waste is collected on a weekly basis.
2. Working with boroughs and central government to make sure all Londoners can recycle in the same way.
3. Working with central government to ban carrier bags, reduce unnecessary packaging and use more recyclable and biodegradable materials.
4. Rolling out the RE:NEW home insulation programme to over a million homes and expand the RE:FIT workplace refurbishment programme to cover small and medium sized businesses.
She said the Greater London Authority Group would be expected to meet five targets during the next Mayoral term:
1. Reduce the GLA group’s building energy bills by £2.7m (a 10% reduction).
2. Switch a third of London’s 54,000 traffic signals to LED lights.
3. Switch at least 1,500 vehicles to electric or used cooking oil engines.
4. Ensure all events funded by City Hall are carrier bag free.
5. Send all public sector food waste and parks waste to anaerobic digesters.
Since 2000 Green Assembly Members have been responsible for securing funding to start refurbishment programmes for homes and offices, setting up the largest new park and animal habitat programmes since the Victorians and leading the pressure that resulted in new planning protections for front gardens.
Green candidate for Brent and Harrow, Dr Shahrar Ali, said: "Green polices for cleaner energy and reducing waste will help us all to do our bit to combat climate change.
"Only the Green Party can be relied upon to walk the talk when it comes to addressing the urgent threat to our environment caused by living beyond our means."
More details on the Greens’ environmental policies and information on how Jones would seek to meet the targets can be found in their 2012 London Elections Manifesto at https://london.greenparty.org.uk/region/london/manifesto.html