The big energy debate
Jenny Jones: 'Boris gives credence to crank theories about climate change'
A London assembly review of performance on cutting the capital's carbon emissions exposes holes in the mayor's strategy
Tue 12 Aug 2014 05.01 EDT First published on Tue 12 Aug 2014 05.01 EDT
The mayor has failed to show the personal leadership that his policies on climate change promised, says Jenny Jones. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA
Earlier in 2014 the London assembly environment committee produced a report card on the progress of the capital's carbon reduction targets. It gave mayor Boris Johnson an overall score of just 4.6 out of 10 for his efforts to reduce carbon.
Despite benefiting from some of the best and most comprehensive climate policies and the efforts of his climate team, Johnson – now in the middle of his second term of office – has failed to show the personal leadership that his climate mitigation and adaptation strategies promise. By not putting the weight of his office and resources behind his pledge to reduce London's carbon emissions by 60% by 2025, long-term targets will prove even harder to achieve.
This overall poor performance is not surprising, given the mayor's reluctance to acknowledge human behaviour as the dominant cause of climate change. Instead the mayor is known to give credence to crank theories, such as solar activity being the cause and speculation over whether we are entering a mini ice age. This dangerous and ill-informed mindset also explains the mayor's rationale for promoting the development of new sources of carbon emissions such as aviation expansion and fracking.
London carbon emission reductions by performance and target.
There is a mixed picture: good progress in some areas is cast against stark underachievement in others, such as retrofitting homes and workplaces for energy efficiency and decentralised energy generation.
With 36% of London's emissions from domestic properties, energy efficiency is essential to deliver the capital's carbon reduction ambitions. However, London is behind and the mayor does not expect to meet his 2015 target. On current performance, it is difficult to see grounds for confidence that he will meet his 2025 target either.
On new buildings, planning policies have ensured energy efficiency has progressed ahead of target. Most of London's carbon emissions involve the energy supply industry, such as mains gas or electricity. The mayor has a target of obtaining 25% of the energy used in London's buildings from decentralised sources by 2025, predominantly from developing large combined heat and power (CHP) and district heating systems. However, Johnson expects to miss his 2015 milestone and the pipeline of future projects is far short of the delivery needed.
Given the failure to grasp the retrofit potential of solar generated electricity, I urged him to form a City Hall team to visit residents, community groups and businesses to offer advice and support. London should be harvesting solar-powered electricity from the underused and empty rooftops of London's commercial and industrial businesses, supermarkets, car parks, schools, transport, public buildings and other spaces. Yet only one in 260 London households has a solar installation, compared to one in 32 in the south-west of England.
The solar industry believes that at this time of year there is no reason why we cannot generate 30-40% of our electricity needs from this source.
There has been traffic reduction of 11% since 2000, explaining much of the progress that has been achieved in the transport sector. However, there has been limited progress with low emission vehicles. The original aim of installing 25,000 electric charging points by 2015 was revised down to 1,300 – which has been exceeded, but we are still only 3% of the way towards the 100,000 electric vehicles on London's roads by 2020.
The aims of Johnson's climate adaptation and mitigation strategies are to position London as an international leader in adapting to and mitigating climate change. Yet, when I questioned him about climate leadership in light of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) five year assessment report, he confirmed they had made no public announcements or responses. Nor was the mayor able to supply details of any planned involvement in next year's UN climate change conference in Paris.
This lack of urgency sends a message of complacency for others to follow. Ultimately, it will leave us and our infrastructure unable to cope with the impact of severe weather and take us one step closer to irreversible climate change beyond our adaptive capabilities.
Jenny Jones is member of the London assembly representing the Green party. She is chair of the London assembly economy committee and a member of the environment committee.
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London politics
Carbon footprints