FOI - 'Climate Emergency' definition [Jun 2023]

Your request

1. What is your definition of a ‘Climate Emergency’?
2. Please disclose the evidence, data, correspondence or other documents in support of the UK's decision to declare a ‘Climate Emergency’.
3. Please disclose a list of policies that have been introduced as a consequence of the climate emergency.
4. Please disclose a list of the strategic partners with respect to the ‘Climate Crisis’.

Our response

A 'Climate Emergency' is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as 'a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it.'

We do not have information on the UK declaring a climate emergency, but the decision to declare a climate emergency was taken by the Mayor of London as far more urgent action was needed to keep to the global temperature rise below 1.5C.

This has been highlighted by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, including in the October 2018 Special Report, and the stark consequences for humanity, ecosystems and biodiversity of failing to act. 

The Mayor has selected a preferred pathway to net zero - the Accelerated Green pathway: 

• Nearly 40 per cent reduction in the total heat demand of our buildings, requiring over 2 million homes and a quarter of a million non-domestic buildings to become properly insulated. 
• 2.2 million heat pumps in operation in London by 2030. 
• 460,000 buildings connected to district heating networks by 2030. 
• A 27 per cent reduction in car vehicle km travelled by 2030. 
• Fossil fuel car and van sales ended by 2030 and enforced in line with Government’s existing commitments. 

The Mayor has already implemented a range of programmes and policies to support London to deliver net zero.

• This link provides further information on the decisive action that the Mayor is taking to tackle the climate emergency.

The list below is a sample of relevant programmes and policies. 

Planning

London was the first major city in the UK to have a net zero-carbon standard 
for major new developments. Where developers cannot achieve further onsite 
reductions, they must offset emissions. Since 2016, the Mayor’s carbon offsetting 
policy has realised £145m across London, including £19.3m in 2021, of funding to 
London boroughs for their climate activities.

Through our planning powers we go well beyond national requirements, achieving the following:

• Predicted CO2 savings of 48 per cent above National Building Regulations for approved major developments referred to the Mayor in 2021. 
• A saving of over 13,500 tCO2 from energy efficiency measures alone, equivalent to adding loft insulation to over 20,000 homes. 
• Over 23,000 dwellings in total proposing to install heat pumps, up from over 10,000 in 2020. 

Mode shift

Walking and cycling has experienced a huge increase in recent years encouraging mode shift and getting people out of their cars. Over 400 School Streets being introduced across the capital since the start of the pandemic – 372 funded with support from the Mayor and Transport for London and the rest funded by boroughs – a rate of more than three a week. There are now over 500 School Streets in London in total, at almost a quarter of primary schools, with more being installed almost every month. 
 
Electric vehicles

The Mayor has delivered more than 300 rapid charge points. London 
now has almost 13,000 charge points, of which almost 900 are rapid or ultra rapid. 
London continues to lead the way with almost a third of all the UK’s charge points. 
 
Zero emission bus fleet

London has a fully Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) compliant bus fleet (around 9,000 buses), cutting bus-related NOx emissions by 90%, with over 950 zero emission buses on London’s roads, the largest zero emission fleet in Western Europe. Further progress on the objective for a net zero bus fleet by 2030 is contingent on the Government providing a fair, long-term sustainable funding deal for Transport for London. 
 
The ULEZ

Following the success of the central ULEZ scheme, which resulted in 44,000 fewer older, more polluting, non-compliant vehicles driving in the zone every day, the ULEZ was expanded to the North and South Circular Roads in October 2021. Compliance has steadily increased since changes associated with the ULEZ began. As of March 2023, 95 per cent of vehicles travelling in the zone meet the ULEZ standards, up from 39 per cent in February 2017 when changes associated with the ULEZ began. 
 
Further expansion of London-wide ULEZ

In November 2022 the Mayor of London confirmed the further expansion of the ULEZ across all London boroughs to clean up London’s toxic air and tackle the climate emergency. The expansion is accompanied by a brand new £110m scrappage scheme to support Londoners on lower incomes, disabled Londoners, charities and small businesses and sole traders. The expanded ULEZ will be complemented by the biggest ever expansion of bus network in outer London.    
 
Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Fund

The Fund was launched in 2018 and has mobilised over £315m of public and private capital enabling projects including heat networks and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In November 2021 the Mayor committed a further £30m of GLA funds that could support a further £150m of investment over the next two years. 
 
Green New Deal Fund

The Mayor announced £10m of Green New Deal Funding in November 2020 to support environmental projects which should secure around 1,000 jobs for Londoners. 
 
Retrofit

Since 2020, the Mayor’s retrofit programmes have helped secure funds totalling more than £221m from government schemes supporting improvements to homes and public buildings. The Retrofit Accelerator – Workplaces programme has improved over 560 public sector buildings since 2016, saving over 22,000 tonnes of carbon and 87 MWh of energy each year. 
 
Business Climate Challenge

The Mayor’s Business Climate Challenge is an energy efficiency programme developed in partnership with Bloomberg Associates to help accelerate the decarbonisation of buildings in London. Businesses commit to at least a 10 per cent reduction in energy consumption over a year and in return receive free support to make their buildings more energy efficient and reduce their costs.

The 2021 pilot was successfully delivered and the scaled-up version is now in delivery with nine businesses engagement partners looking to recruit 250 businesses onto the programme. If they meet their efficiency targets this could result in those businesses saving up to £2m in the first year. 
 
Renewables

The Mayor’s £6m Local Energy Accelerator programme is supporting public and private sector organisations to develop local renewables and locally generated district energy networks. Under the Solar Together London initiative over 1,900 households have already had solar PV installed t totalling 4.5MW of solar PV and saving over 1,000 tonnes of CO2e.

Since 2017 the London Community Energy Fund has offered over £1.4m of grant funding across five phases to support 116 projects across 26 boroughs; together the projects are projected to save over 2,500 tonnes of CO2e and deliver an additional 8MW of solar PV if they all progress to installation. 
 
Appendix 3 of the London Environment Strategy provides some of the organisations that have an important partnership with the Mayor, and their roles and responsibilities. 

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting 
reference MGLA120623-9610.