London triumphs at C40 awards

London won two of the eleven awards on offer at this evening’s C40 City Climate Leadership Awards, which took place at the Manhattan Centre in New York.

London was recognised in two categories: Air Quality, for its new taxi scheme to incentivise the use of electric and hybrid vehicles; and Carbon Measurement & Planning, for its innovation in measuring production as well as consumption-based emission sources.

Transport accounts for 60 percent of air pollutant emissions in London with the UK capital’s famous black cabs being responsible for 35 percent of particulate matter emissions. The New Taxi for London project aims to reduce black cab emissions by up to 100 percent in central London. Mayor Boris Johnson has set a target of 2018 for all newly licensed taxis to be zero emission capable with a subsidy provided for the capital costs of the taxi.

“We have taken some stick about air quality and we recognise there are challenges and part of that is the new taxi project, through which we are trying to stimulate the low-carbon vehicle market and at the same time give taxi drivers a huge revenue saving,” Matthew Pencharz, Senior Environmental Adviser to the Mayor of London told Cities Today, ahead of receiving the award. “The fuel savings are so huge on low emission vehicles that it is a triple win: better quality of life, cleaner air, and we are reducing the costs for taxi drivers.”

In terms of carbon measurement, Pencharz said that the city’s retrofitting programme was well known as part of London’s strategy to adapt to climate change challenges.

“We were one of the first cities to do an adaptation strategy and to do decent carbon measurement ten years ago and now ten years on, we are getting recognised for our scope 3 emissions work,” said Pencharz.

Michael Bloomberg, President of the Board at C40, welcomed guests to the start of Climate Week in New York with the C40 awards taking place on the eve of the UN Climate Summit.

“Cities have to pay a decisive role because they hold the keys for driving emissions down and C40 cities are really leading the way and if national governments want to share some of the credit, they better get on board and follow their cities,” said Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York.

According to Bloomberg, national leaders do not realise just how much cities can do to reduce emissions.

“At the national level, they talk but they do not stop to think how things can get better whereas mayors start to implement and then do their talking afterwards,” said Bloomberg. “If we can close the gap between the perception of what countries can accomplish and what they actually can accomplish if they really try to do some things and use the power of cities, then we can be successful in Paris next year.”

Bloomberg said for those sceptical about climate change, they should look at New York, which through low-carbon initiatives has seen life expectancy go up three years for 8.4 million people and it was now three years greater than the US national average. A big part of that was due to cleaning the air and reducing congestion.

“This is good for the economy as well as the health of our citizens,” said Bloomberg.

The full list of winners: Urban Transportation (Shenzhen); Solid Waste Management (Buenos Aires); Finance & Economic Development (Amsterdam); Carbon Measurement & Planning (London); Green Energy (Seoul); Sustainable Communities (Portland); Adaptation & Resilience (Melbourne); Air Quality (London); Intelligent City Infrastructure (Barcelona) and Energy Efficient Built Environment (New York). Taipei won the Citizen’s Choice award, voted for by 40,000 members of the public, for its clean air programme.