A green roof that is part of the green Matzdorf House, London, UK.

London planning to be the world’s greenest city

The radical climate change action plan recently released by the city of London (UK) plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent within 20 years.

The plan aims to reduce emissions at the local government, industrial and business level. Elements of the plan include:

• businesses and local governments, which emit approximately 33 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, will be awarded green badges of merit for adopting reduction strategies;
• subsidies will be offered to homeowners to insulate their homes; and
• switching over one-quarter of the city’s power supply from the old and highly inefficient national grid to locally-generated electricity using combined heat and power plants.

“Londoners don’t have to reduce their quality of life to tackle climate change, but we do need to change the way we live,” said Mayor Ken Livingstone, champion of London’s Climate Change Action Plan.

ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection^® Campaign is an innovative international campaign that helps local government and their communities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on the environment. For more information on the Campaign, please visit www.iclei.org/ccp.

London is one of 159 local governments in Europe that are currently Members of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. For more information on ICLEI and its activities in Europe, please visit www.iclei.org/europe.

Source: “Mayor unveils climate change plan”, BBC News, 27 February 2007 and “London plans to be world’s greenest city”, Reuters, 27 February 2007.