London has become the first megacity in the world to commit to reaching the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) air quality guidelines having joined the BreatheLife network on October 4. These “gold standard” recommendations for air quality set serious limits on health-harming pollutants.
The WHO recommends an upper limit on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) of 10 micrograms per cubic meter, and this is the target London plans to reach by 2030.
London’s Air Quality department has done extensive analysis to ensure that this is an ambitious but realistic target.
Information from the theBreatheLife network has it that London’s plan to meet this target is backed by serious science and stakeholder consensus. The city’s air quality strategy centres around another ambitious target: becoming a zero-carbon city by 2050.
Achieving this vision will require broad action across the city, from the institutional level to the individual.
Key aspects of London’s vision and strategy for cleaner air include: “By 2041, Londoners will make 80 per cent of their trips on foot, by bicycle or by public transport (currently, that number is 64 per cent).
“All taxis and cars-for-hire will be zero emission by 2033; all buses will be zero emission by 2037; all new road vehicles in London will be zero emission by 2040; and the whole transport system will be zero emission by 2050.”
The strategy involves to develop a resilient, low or zero-carbon energy infrastructure that allows London to generate more of its own energy and that is secure and scalable long-term. Other strategies include implementing a “Healthy Streets” approach, cutting down on car traffic to make local streets more pleasant for pedestrians; build the biodiesel industry to fuel government-owned vehicles, which is also good for green jobs, and to replace and repair Londoners’ inefficient and broken boilers with the £1 million Better Boilers fund, saving 310 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.
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