Cleaner, greener, more resilient – the mayor’s 2050 manifesto for London

City Hall is finalising its new environment strategy for London. Deputy mayor environment and energy Shirley Rodrigues spells out the challenges ahead.

When London Mayor Sadiq Khan appointed Shirley Rodrigues his deputy for the environment and energy two years ago, he tasked the former charity boss with transforming the Big Smoke into a world-leading player in clean energy, that is resilient to climate change, that will achieve zero-carbon status by 2050.

Ms Rodrigues, former acting executive director for climate change at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, is about to present the final strategy proposal. The manifesto tackles six broad priorities. It aims to reposition as a green pioneer a city that is failing its air and water-quality targets and whose energy, water and infrastructure systems are under growing strain. The Environment asked Ms Rodrigues for an update.

What progress have you made towards the final draft of the environment strategy for London, its aims and its costings?

The draft strategy, launched last August, set out the direction of travel that the mayor wanted to take. We want London to be a national-park city, at least half of its area green, and to set it on the path towards becoming a zero-carbon city. Next, the mayor will sign off the final strategy, to be put before the London Assembly, which of course also has right of veto. That will start in the next couple of months.

What has the consultation process delivered?

We’ve been surprised by the level of response – not just about air quality. The proposal to develop London as a national park city has also gained a lot of traction.

We’ve also been focusing on delivery. This year we launched the £34 million Energy for Londoners programme, aiming to turn London into a zero-carbon city by 2050, subject to central government doing what it should to decarbonise the National Grid.

We’ve launched a reverse solar auction programme, piloted in five boroughs. This will gauge interest from home owners in putting solar panels on their roofs, to negotiate lower prices for those panels. This will help to increase London’s installed solar power by 100MW by 2030. If that’s successful, we will roll it out across London.

What are your plans for green infrastructure?

We want green infrastructure integrated into the planning system. We want that replicated across London, whether that’s green walls or integrating parks into new developments. Developers need to understand that they must deliver an additional element.

We have the metrics that they will have to calculate, that they can meet in lots of different ways, preferably including parks and open spaces in new development. It’s for the developers to judge how that’s implemented – we will produce the advice.

Will that guidance be enforced?

We don’t have powers of enforcement. It falls to local authorities to consider planning applications and enforcement, but that enforcement has been outsourced. We’ve been advocating to government to enforce emissions and other standards on construction sites, for example.

How will you boost biodiversity so that development doesn’t replace but delivers net gain?

We’ve worked with Natural England, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Trust to calculate London’s natural capital. It’s then about setting out the benefits of natural capital to flood prevention or sequestration of carbon – all the things to take into account – and to implement guidance.

It’s about rolling that out, getting finance directors and local councils to understand that they must take these natural assets into account. It’s tricky because local authority budgets are hard-pressed, due to massive cuts over the last few years. But it’s about spelling out the benefits from green infrastructure.

Given the cuts, how can councils deliver those objectives?

It’s going to be tough, but they must do it. London’s local authorities have powers and responsibilities. The mayor’s job is to set the strategic focus, whether in environmental planning, or transport or housing, working with other stakeholder organisations.

Councils’ technical capacity has been stripped back and they are looking for advice. In areas where we can help, we will seek funding. The Greater London Authority has a good record securing money from the European Commission for technical assistance, for example, helping local authorities to roll out heat networks.

Ultimately, the statutory responsibility lies with the local authorities – although we have some £9 million of funding in place for green spaces, for which local authorities can bid to plant trees or develop green infrastructure, for example.

How can London improve its water security?

We need better co-ordination between various bodies, to identify what underpins water stress in London. City Hall can identify the big issues and tell the water companies – primarily Thames Water – to do more to address leakages. The decisionmaking comes from the water companies.

It’s for City Hall to set the strategic framework and for developers to build in ways to be more water-efficient. That comes back to Thames Water doing more to roll out its water meters. Irrespective of the modelling and the ways we can narrow the supply/demand gap, the Environment Agency can’t do it alone; we need a new water resource for London.

We will do our own analysis to ensure that any new water resource is appropriate to the needs of London’s growing population. We expect local government to safeguard land for this new supply. But we all need to think more imaginatively to tackle this.

How can City Hall make the water companies more accountable and more willing to invest?

When I started, we called Thames Water in to discuss its performance, particularly the leakage rates. It’s incumbent on the new chief executive, the shareholders and the regulator to improve performance. The mayor has been clear that the performance being delivered in London is not great.

This winter, London had a couple of major water main bursts and a freeze-thaw. Customers don’t have great confidence in water companies and we are trying to hold them to account regarding compensation and strengthening the regulator’s powers. Water companies must adopt a long-term approach, rather than make a quick buck.

The Thames Barrier will need to be replaced. What’s the time frame, and how much might that cost?

The level of investment depends on where and what it is. It took a good 40 years, from conception to getting the original Thames Barrier built. In terms of rising sea levels, we are confident that we are secure for now and that the Environment Agency is taking the right approach.

We have a couple of options for where [the barrier] might be and the EA has spoken to Thurrock Council about safeguarding that land. The mayor supports the EA objection. We must ensure that water companies recognise that this will take longer than the five-year AMPs – that they put money aside now for feasibility work.

How can the UK join up its various initiatives to improve its urban environments post-Brexit?

We need an independent environmental body to hold the government to account, to allow the public to bring cases as Client Earth has recently, regarding air quality. The public has no route to do so at present. That body must monitor progress, post-Brexit and set stronger, health-based targets…

We want current EU standards transposed to the UK, to build on what has been achieved so far. We need a body that can set standards and targets that are updated and reviewed. There are numerous options, from the committee on climate change, which has a legal basis, to the [former] Sustainable Development Commission, which was an advisory body. We need a body that has teeth.

Am I confident? Let’s see… No.

Meanwhile, London is getting on with it. We see the London environment strategy as a template for England. The main obstacles are powers and funding – but there’s a lot that the mayor can do, with his influence and his reach. With challenges such as climate change, the matter is urgent now. We need to take action.

Funding is one thing. But we need powers to move fast.

Six pillars for change

Green growth

The London environment strategy aims to transform London’s mean streets to green streets, halting and reversing the decline in biodiversity. It aims to replace lost natural resources as the city tackles its housing shortages and upgrades its creaking transport infrastructure, monitoring new developments to ensure that they include green spaces and boost natural capital.

London’s eight million trees contribute an estimated £133 million to the city’s economy, removing pollution, reducing surface-water flooding and storing some 2.4 million tonnes of carbon. The city’s parks and green spaces have a gross asset value of some £91 billion. The strategy will invest in green infrastructure, increasing London tree cover by 10 per cent.

Air quality

London’s pollution levels topped their annual targets barely a month into new year. Air pollution is responsible for some 9,000 premature deaths a year in the capital. In November, the London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory revealed that every part of London exceeds safe limits for toxic PM2.5 particles.

Some 7.9 million Londoners live in neighbourhoods where PM2.5 levels top safe limits by at least 50 per cent. Average annual levels in central London are almost double World Health Organisation limits.

The strategy names air quality as “the most pressing environmental threat to the future health of London”. Ms Rodrigues will expand London’s ultra-low-emission zone (ULEZ) by April next year, introducing tougher penalties for older, more polluting vehicles.

The strategy also focuses on noise pollution. The mayor’s office opposes the proposed third runway at London Heathrow Airport.

Water supply

London’s water-supply systems and sewers are under growing strain. Its Victorian sewers are cracked and ageing. Fourteen London rivers fall short of European Union standards, ranked bad or poor and the capital loses a fifth of its clean water supply to leakages.

Meanwhile, the city is threatened by flooding and by drought. Water demand will outstrip supply by 10 per cent by 2025, the gap widening to 21 per cent by 2040. The Thames Barrier, managed by the Environment Agency, must be replaced within a generation to prevent flooding upstream.

The 2050 plan puts sustainable urban drainage and natural flood management front and centre of the battle to maximise London’s water resources.

Green energy

One in ten London electricity substations is approaching full capacity. City Hall will work with London’s local authorities to expand the capital’s energy infrastructure. The environment strategy recognises that London can never be self-sufficient in energy. It aims to make the capital more self-reliant, focusing on renewables, particularly solar energy and on turning waste into biofuels.

Energy for Londoners will tackle the energy poverty that forces one in ten households to choose between heating their homes and buying food. It will identify ways to generate more low-carbon energy, improving energy efficiency by promoting smart meters, and helping Londoners to negotiate better deals from providers of energy and clean technologies.

Waste and recycling

London will run out of landfill capacity within eight years. Tackling single-use plastic is a priority. More recycling, more conversion of waste into biofuel and initiatives to promote the circular economy aim to turn London into a zero-waste city by 2050. Tomorrow’s motto is reduce, reuse and recycle more.

By the end of the decade, London’s waste authorities will face minimum standards for recycling and food waste. This aims to cut food waste by a fifth by 2025.

Climate change

Better monitoring and understanding the impact of climate change will help London to become more resilient to rising seas and extreme weather. City Hall will work with the Environment Agency to plan how and when to replace the Thames Barrier, for completion in the 2030s or 2040s.

It will press London’s water companies to shore up supply and reduce leakage rates to make supply more secure, efficient and sustainable. Urban planning and planting will take account of changing temperatures.

By Karen Thomas, Editor