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.
