new!
the party’s over
London is in the throes, if not the fever, of a mayoral election. Welcomingly, the environment
and sustainability issues are a large feature of most of the parties’ manifestos. Naturally, the Green Party
makes strong eco overtures, promising free insulation for all homes that require it. The Tory candidate Boris Johnson
says he will pay Londoners to recycle, while Ken Livingstone, the incumbent (at time of going to press) has vowed to
reduce the capital’s CO2 emissions by 60 per cent by 2025. Ken has form on his
side. He has pushed through several strong green initiatives such as retrofitting London’s public buildings to
save energy, and trialling hydrogen-fuelled buses.
So far, so good. But as we all know manifestos are one thing putting them into practice is quite another. And more
to the point the powers that any mayor has to enact real change on such a multi-faceted issue as climate change are
limited. Many of the aspects require national and not local initiatives – although many can and should start at the
neighbourhood level. Indeed, there’s an argument to suggest that what’s required to address no less a
problem that we collectively face than catastrophic global warming – as scientists predict – is a cross-party
coalition that might remove, as much as is humanly possible, the politics from the principles of the issue. Now that
would be progress.
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