Our executive director John on why Boris Johnson will have to work much harder on his climate change agenda if he is to have any hope of running the capital.
Boris Johnson claimed, at the launch of his campaign to run London, that he "will be the greenest mayor, far greener than Ken". His ambition is to be congratulated, but his claim invites scrutiny.
We all know that Boris is a keen cyclist - the sight of his unhelmeted blond locks blowing around the street corners of London is an iconic image. But a lesser-known passion is his professed "love affair with the car" which "will never conk out". As the motoring correspondent of GQ magazine, he tells us, "I have sometimes attained velocities which are incompatible with my new status as a tribune of the people". And in many ways he is right to highlight this apparent incompatibility - between his racy, energetic and spontaneous persona and a newly professed concern for slowing the progress of global warming. To win the mayoralty of a city like London, a candidate should be able to display a deep understanding and commitment to environmental issues, a serious appreciation of the threat that climate change poses to all of us and a coherent plan for implementing some solutions.
For a start, a proper understanding of the potential of renewable energy to combat climate change would help to persuade voters of his seriousness. Instead, Boris has displayed a disregard for the technology, reflected in phrases such as this gem: "Wind farms ... even when they are in motion, would barely pull the skin off a rice pudding." Boris, when in full rhetorical motion, seems barely able to keep the lid on his prejudices. With the potential to generate more of our electricity than any other European country from wind power, his dismissal of an entire technological sector seems a little, well, trifling.
And this is where the real problem lies. The bumbling exterior, the lovable rogue act that has won him the Conservative party nomination needs to be backed up with a detailed, credible and radical plan for drastically reducing London's emissions over his term in office. Instead, the only real indicators we have of Boris's position are his support for the expensive, dangerous and ineffectual "solution" supposedly offered by nuclear power, his stint as a motoring correspondent and a few token overtures to the embattled cyclist.
Ken Livingstone's introduction of the congestion charge - one of the boldest political initiatives of recent times - has delivered cuts in both pollution and congestion levels and is now being studied by policy makers around the world. In contrast, the only real indication we have of Boris Johnson's ability to stand up to dissident voices was his opposition to the Kyoto treaty. As editor of the Spectator he suggested in 2001 that the agreement: "would exacerbate the recession, and when Bush says no, he is doing what is right not just for America but for the world."
This kind of diplodocus rhetoric from the mouth of a mayor would be unlikely to put London on a low emissions path and create the conditions for the city to become an international hub for low carbon business. If Boris wants to avoid disappearing under the rising tide of environmental awareness he'll have to do more to convince Londoners that his blond ambition is, in fact, green.
