Building action on net zero

The Mayor was elected with a manifesto commitment to achieve net zero by 2030 in London, including a ‘climate action plan’. There are now only six years until 2030, so the Environment Committee will assess progress and ensure there is clarity in communication and actions to maximise emissions reductions.

The investigation will examine the steps the Mayor is taking to build action to achieve his goal of reducing emissions in London to net zero by 2030. It will focus on how the Mayor is working with other stakeholders and engaging with Londoners to accelerate action. It will examine:

• The Mayor’s approach to engagement with Londoners and communicating the action needed to meet the net zero target.
• What the Mayor is doing to ensure a ‘just transition’ to net zero.
• How the Mayor is convening key partners to plan actions to deliver the net zero pathway.

• Achieving net zero by 2030, in line with the Mayor’s preferred pathway will require “ambitious levels” of behaviour change and technology rollout, as well as reducing emissions to 22 per cent of 1990 levels, with the remaining residual emissions needing to be offset.
• The Mayor does not have the power or funding to achieve net zero in London on his own. As the Mayor’s Element Energy report states, “measures will rely on national-level decisions and coordinated action with relevant partner stakeholders, as well as engagement and behaviour change by the public and local businesses”.
• The Mayor’s target for achieving net zero by 2030 is 20 years ahead of the UK government’s own 2050 net zero target.

• How effective has the Mayor’s approach been to working with different partners to: (i) build consensus, (ii) agree actions and (iii) co-ordinate communications on achieving net zero in London by 2030?
• Who should the Mayor be working with to communicate around net zero?
• How can the Mayor achieve the scale of changes needed to achieve net zero by 2030 while ensuring that actions are fair, and understood as fair?
• What can the Mayor learn from other examples of effective public engagement and participation on net zero?

As part of this investigation, the Committee issued a Call for Evidence. 

This Call for Evidence has now closed. All responses received will be used to shape the Committee's output for this investigation.

You can see the responses to this Call for Evidence here.