As 2014 is set to go down as the hottest year in Central England in recorded history Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones calls upon the Mayor of London to stop “the buck passing” and to focus on transforming London into a low carbon economy.
According to the Met Office provisional figures, 2014 is officially the warmest year in the Central England area (which covers London) since official records began over 350 years ago and marks a year punctuated by broken weather records. 2014 started with a record wet and stormy winter with the Thames Barrier closing an unprecedented 50 times, a driest September and warmest Halloween. The latest scientific predications give global economies 15 years to transform to low carbon economies, in order to have any chance of avoiding the worst of irreversible climate change.
Jenny Jones pictured earlier this year speaking out against fracking.
London Assembly Member Jenny Jones recently warned Boris Johnson that in her role as Chair of the London Economy Committee, big businesses are telling her that climate change is the biggest risk to their business. Jenny urged the Mayor to attend and show personal leadership at the forthcoming “crunch” UN climate change summit taking place in Paris, December 2015. The Mayor replied that “I have not focussed on the Paris summit yet, and whether it’s crucial to be there” 6
Jenny Jones said:
“The time for the buck passing is over. We are running out of time to avert a climate catastrophe and Boris Johnson should be at the forefront, advocating and delivering carbon reduction programmes on the scale needed, as well as zero carbon energy generating technologies like solar energy”
“Instead, Boris Johnson criticises wind farms, ignores the scientific consensus on global warming and promotes climate sceptic views. His backing of aviation expansion and fracking can only lead to one thing and that is the acceleration of global warming.
“For London this means far more severe weather events such as floods, droughts, killer heatwaves and an unstable global economy”