Cleaning up London’s toxic air

1. The mayor is doing NOTHING at all to prevent climate change NOW.  It seems, he has only (money-donating??!!) business at heart. Why???

2. Interestingly, the "Environment" section of talk london has not seen anything since 2018, whereas "business" and "digital" has?  WHY???

3. The mayor has not done anything whatsoever to force the ever-present "property developers" to include parks, shrubs or other proper green areas into their planning. Instead, the mayor is intent to build more and more and ever higher, unsuitable buildings, destroying London. WHY??

4. When is the mayor stopping the so called "gig economy" (scooters that are noisy and speed through built-up areas at an unwelcome rate and numbers)?

I have been doing smalll personal achievements to reduce my carbon footprint. One of it is walking to work however I can't help but notice the incinerator in my area (South East London Combined Heat & Power Ltd) The smoke that's coming out of the chimney is really worrying. I walk also for the health benefits but thinking that I inhale those toxic gases is really disappointing. Mayor Sadiq what can we do about this?

Reducing your carbon footprint is a complete waste of time and money. Current O2 levels aren't dangerously high, they are dangerously low at 415ppm. Below 200ppm and plants struggle to survive. Below 150ppm and they die. Plants are where we get our oxygen. If they die, we die. Look up co2 levels during the Jurassic/Cretaceous period. Ten times current levels.

There have been some major developments over the years to reduce traffic emissions in London.  The bus system, taxis and the cycle highways are all welcome changes.  The next development has to be changing the rubbish collection lorries to electricity or sustainable fuel.  

These lorries travel all over our city from major roads to small lanes within residential areas.  They drive past our homes weekly emitting noxious fumes, stalling with engines running while rubbish sacks are loaded and are major contributing factors to the terrible environmental health statistics experienced by all of us.  

It would be a simple solution to now convert all these lorries to sustainable fuel or electricity.  It would benefit not only all residents and road users, but also the very people who work on them.  This would also have a major effect on contributing to London's goal of reducing carbon emissions.

We have a hard to keep warm Edwardian semi detached house. We recently insulated our ground floor , which we had tried to figure out how to do for years as it's a small space that could it be accessed by humans. We found Q-bot that do it with a small robot. We put curtains across the door, have double glazing, & a PV panel. We spend about £900 a year on gas ( both work mainly from home).    The house is still hard to keep warm though. 
Compared to 5 years I use public transport most of the time for long and short journeys ( having a rail pass and freedom pass really helps). I cycle for short journeys in summer but don't feel safe for longer journeys or in wet. The bus routes near me could be improved a lot ( east - west routes in north east London are really poor). 
City Airport expansion proposals together with the concentrated flight paths are completely out of order with the climate and pollution emergencies. They cannot be justified. 

Installed solar panels - but for this to be more accessible London needs to reinstate the subsidy

bought a plug in hybrid which cuts city driving fuel use to about 10% of a petrol car - but need much more charging infrastructure in London, including on street home charging, and charging companies need to be forced to end their rip-off charging fees

cycle to work

Dear Mayor of London,

It is encouraging that London is one of the leading cities globally in striving for sustainability, reducing emissions and improving air quality.  In this regard, I am writing to you about the recent planning permission for constructing a major 50MW gas-fired power station inside Zone 4.  May I please urge you to please stop Barnet Council granting planning permission for this substantial electricity generation asset so close to expanding residential areas, which includes two primary schools within quarter of a mile (https://tinyurl.com/rrjcfwa).

The planning application for this fossil fuel-burning generation asset flies in the face of what our national government has committed to in order that the UK meets its Paris Agreement greenhouse gas emission targets.  It flies in the face of what London residents want to see: cleaner energy generation and reduced emissions to make the future a sustainable one for all future generations.  It also flies in the face of recently passed legistaiton aiming to make the UK a net zero contributor to greenhouse emissions.

Your prompt and decisive action would be most appreciated.

Warm regards,

Dr P Ostovar

Hello,

I wanted to bring this company to your attention, that retrofits Diesel buses to electric vehicles

https://www.e-trofit.com/en/

It might be a cheaper and faster alternative to replacing them altogether, and would benefit 1) air quality 2) climate change 3) noise reduction, that would all three be very much needed in London!

best

Cornelia

Personally, I'm more aware of my carbon footprint and regularly recycle, avoid buying plastics, reuse plastics, switched to smart electric and water meter. Buy from local farmers market and local sustainable suppliers. My food shop is delivered in limited packaging and collected the following week to reuse the packaging. 
 

Ideas for the environment team at City Hall:

1. Education is key start with schools.

2. Standardise waste bins across London. Each borough has different guidelines for waste and recycling. This often results in households putting the wrong waste in their recycling bins.

3. Tree policy and the budget for street trees needs to be statutory so funding doesn't get allocated elsewhere. Mature trees are vital storing carbon and particles. Certain councils still cut down hundreds of healthy street trees simply because they don't have the budget to maintain them. This is happening across London boroughs. There is funding for new saplings which do not have the same environmental benefit compared to mature trees. Saplings are planted but not maintained because the council does not have the resources so saplings are dying. Huge waste! Councils must be made to consult with residents before cutting down healthy trees and provide transparent data on their tree stock including how many are felled each year. Please help save London's street trees.

4. The council must be encouraged to be sustainable and reuse existing materials. The current policy of replacing perfectly good paving stones with asphalt (tarmac) is terrible for the environment. 

5. Offer subsidies to businesses and residents for solar panels.

6. Make water and electric meters man

I have chosen not to own a car, despite my job being community based. Over the past 15 years I've used TFL and the increased numbers of buses initiated during Ken Livingstone's time, to see my clients and travel around my work area. This is unusual amongst my colleagues but for me well worth it. I do note however that buses are more crowded and generally given the volumes of passengers they carry; fairly filthy.

I find the fare freeze for one hour's travel really helpful as I'm sometimes jumping on and off buses to get to clients promptly. I think there are more routes which need to be invested in to further improve services especially for more vulnerable people.

My personal ideology has lead me to choose solar powered electricity from my energy provider and I would dearly love to have the opportunity to install solar panels to my roof. I would encourage people to consider cleaner electricity  options when choosing new a provider.

I loved the initiative with the Woodland Trust of free tree saplings. I was lucky enough to win two which I donated to a community garden. I would dearly like to see more tree planting alongside the busiest roads as a means of greening the area and absorbing both noise and air pollutants; as well as of course improving town temperatures and humidity and mood!

Clearly it is in everybody's interest to reduce their carbon footprint, not only does it help to reduce toxic gas emissions but household bills as well. However, no amount of central or local legislation will bring about much change in the household sector, people have still to be able to heat themselves adequately (particularly in winter). The same applies to lighting (all year round).

Again, to reduce 24/7 emissions in the commercial sector, the UK could only shorten working hours if a concerted effort was made to implement such a change across Europe. As the UK is leaving the EU, there is even less chance of this happening.

For legislation to be effective it has to address wider environmental issues and be able to produce results which can be adequately measured.

I have replaced all lighting in parents and friends houses with low energy LED bulbs, instead of a 50W old halogen bulb, we use 4W LED bulbs, same amount of light, less energy usage. My workplace also agreed to followed suit.

I drive a modern diesel for motorway commutes. (cleaner than a modern GDI engine - Gasoline Direct Injection). I do check trains etc but ticket prices are too high for me. £154 one way each day is ridiculous; so the next best thing is a highly efficient and heavily filtered Diesel vehicle which gets me just over 76mpg. Again an electric car might be nice, but I just simply cannot afford one. Wish I could.

I no longer own a car and have stopped taking flights. I've also switched almost entirely to a vegan diet, and have a smart meter to help watch consumption. My apartment is electricity only. So a gold star for me, but...

I work on problems surrounding human extinction (what's called existential risk) and sometimes research climate change talking with the leading world experts. As such I am appalled by the actions of Extinction Rebellion and the Mayor's laissez-faire attitude to their destructive protests in our city. These people are professional protesters totally misrepresenting the science, scaremongering to terrify our children and lying to the public, just to have their fun.

Just as we charge football clubs for policing matches, the Mayor needs to step up, show leadership and find a means to charge Extinction Rebellion for future protests. It is manifestly crazy that London council tax payers must stump up the £24-37 million (estimates from different sources) that the last protests cost. Not to mention the probably 100s of millions of pounds lost to the economy by their obstruction of honest hard-working Londoners trying to go about their daily lives. Extinction Rebellion can afford it. They pay people to protest and are funded, for example, by a major shareholder in Heathrow Airport, such is the hypocrisy of this grouping.

The Mayor must call out the crazed antiscience claims of Extinction Rebellion and ensure they are not welcome in his city. And that the police must and will take any and all action to keep London moving smoothly, If he fails to show such leadership, after what happened at Canning Town last time around, then that dereliction of his duty will inevitably lead to Londoners having to take the appropriate action themselves, In which case the consequences will be on Sadiq Khan.

Reducing the amount of single use packaging that I use. A lot of places now incentivize me to reuse my own container too, which is a nice additional benefit. I feel that cafes & restaurants are using more and more packaging and it all ends up in landfill.

I recently found this website as well that provides the incentives that shops are offering within the areas. Seems to only be working for Camden & Victoria at the moment though. Hopefully they will extend in the future to help us out. Incase anyone is interested, the website is https://tu-go.co.uk/