London environmental strategy takes some heat
London Mayor Boris Johnson made a long-awaited appointment to the spot of environmental adviser to the city after releasing a draft Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, but critics said the strategy lacks solid targets.
The mayor has previously made a commitment to a 60 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the city by 2025. The newly released strategy proposes greening the city by improving and increasing London's greenspaces to keep the city cool in the summer, managing the flood risk in the area, and encouraging Londoners to use less water.
But the London Assembly had some tough questions for the mayor's team.
"I think what I'm looking for from this administration are very concrete milestones to show that we are making progress," said Mike Tuffrey, a member of the London Assembly's Environment Committee, at a public meeting in City Hall.
An updated draft of the strategy, which could include short-term targets, is set to be released later this year after consultation with the London Assembly and other city bodies, including the London Development Agency, Transport for London, the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, and the Metropolitan Police Authority.
"Simply having lots of activity does not in itself get you to the required target," said Tuffrey. "We have to see what are those dates before 2012 that the administration is strong enough to achieve."
Johnson was voted in as mayor last year and will be up for re-election in 2012.
Tuffrey said, "We really need to see a step up in achievements, not commitments, in actual achievements, during this four years if we're actually going to get anywhere on this subject."
Last month, New York City made a move to clean up its emissions, launching a request for renewable energy projects in the Big Apple (see NYC puts out call for renewable power).
New York's Economic Development Corporation released a Request for Expressions of Interest for projects including offshore wind farms, bridge- and building-mounted wind turbines, and tidal, solar, geothermal, and landfill gas power.
In London, public consultation on the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy will happen in the winter, with adoption and publication of the final draft scheduled for spring 2009.
The mayor named Isabel Dedring as the city's environmental adviser. She's currently director of the policy unit at Transport for London.
Simon Milton, deputy mayor for policy and planning, said, "She will be part of the cabinet. She'll be part of the team alongside people like myself and the other deputy mayors."
The mayor's office said that over the last four years Dedring has overseen the development and delivery of a wide range of strategies covering climate change, low carbon transport, low carbon building retrofits and sustainable travel planning.
Darren Johnson, chair of the Environment Committee, said that the London Assembly was pleased the mayor has someone in place to take his environmental agenda forward, but said, "We have waited four months for this key appointment to be made and there is now some urgent catching up to do."
Some of the projects proposed by the mayor's office include teaming up with Philadelphia-based RecycleBank to boost recycling in London, as well as planting trees and creating new parks.
"We've had discussions with RecycleBank to see how it could be introduced in Britain," said Richard Blakeway, a mayoral adviser.
RecycleBank, which partners with cities and businesses to reward households that recycle, raised $30 million in Series B funding earlier this year led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (see Marine power gets a boost).
"At the moment RecycleBank doesn't work anywhere within Europe, but they have got some funding to come here," said Blakeway. "I think if they crack London it would be a significant achievement."
The mayor has also committed to planting 10,000 street trees by 2012.
"We've identified 40 areas where these trees will be planted. That will be starting later this year," said Milton, who also talked about the city's parks program. "The Priority Parks program is aiming to deliver new open spaces — renovated open spaces — particularly in residential areas."
"I think we can deliver about three new parks a year."
The Environment Committee expects to dig deeper into the issue of milestones at its next meeting in October.
http://media.cleantech.com/3360/london-environmental-strategy-takes-some-heat
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