• Road transport causes almost half of London’s air pollution.  Tweet This!
• Thousands of premature deaths every year are caused by poisonous gases and particles, which increase the risk of asthma, dementia and strokes.
• Children are severely affected by London’s toxic air: if exposed to the same levels of pollution during their lifetime, children born in London in 2010 will lose two years of life expectancy, due to air pollution.
• One in ten Londoners under 18 years of age has asthma.

In view of these facts and figures, Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said: “I want to reduce poisonous emissions by more than half by 2025 across the whole of London. One of the ways we will do this is by cutting the number of dirty vehicles on London’s roads.”

To achieve this target:

• All new double-deck buses will, from 2018, be hybrid, hydrogen or electric.
• By 2020, 5,000 older buses will be upgraded.
• 12 low-emission bus zones will be introduced.
• By 2037, London’s bus fleet will be completely zero-emission.
• Drivers of older, more polluting vehicles now have to pay £10 to enter central London.
• Starting in 2019, harmful emissions will be reduced by 50 per cent through the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone.
• A Cleaner Vehicle Checker will make it easier for Londoners to buy cleaner cars.

References:

This article is based on published information by the Mayor of London. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the publication’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/shorthand/cleaner_vehicles/

The post Air pollution in London: Facts and figures appeared first on SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine.

Brixton Road, in Lambeth, seems to be London’s most polluted street: levels of pollutant nitrogen dioxide exceeded average hourly limits 18 times thus far, this year.

Environmental groups demand that the Government takes immediate action, not least by creating and funding clean air zones in the worst affected areas. According to Oliver Hayes (Friends of the Earth), “the frequency and severity of these pollution spikes shows we’ve still got a long way to go in cleaning up our air, despite some good initiatives by the Mayor”.

Additionally, beyond London, 85% of areas across the UK continue to break air quality rules that should have been achieved in 2010.

Most importantly, air pollution is connected to the early deaths of approximately 40,000 people every year in the UK, and causes problems like asthma and heart or lung diseases.

Mel Evans, clean air campaigner at Greenpeace, said that the Government “could make a real difference very quickly by replicating London’s evidence-led approach across the country” and called for funding for local authorities to create clean air zones.

References:

This article is based on published information by the London Evening Standard. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the publication’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-reaches-air-pollution-limit-for-2018-before-end-of-january-a3753501.html

The post London reaches air pollution limit for 2018 before end of January appeared first on SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine.

The business-led charity Heart of the City was founded in 2000 as a joint initiative of the Bank of England, City of London Corporation and the Financial Service Authority. Currently, Heart of the City is the largest SMEs network in the UK, despite being open to firms of all sizes. The primary goal of Heart of the City is to encourage SMEs to embrace sustainability and maximise their positive impact on society. In addition to this, Heart of the City aims at providing the firms operating in London with the necessary tools to measure and improve their social impact and to communicate their CSR programmes. The members of Heart of the City have access to various resources, tailor-made guidance and an extensive network of partners.

Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, acknowledges that Heart of the City plays an important role, helping firms of all sizes, large and small, develop their corporate social responsibility programmes. Furthermore, he encourages all businesses to become members of Heart of the City and take full advantage of its broad range of resources and support.

References:

1. This article was compiled using information from https://theheartofthecity.com. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses but made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the video’s and webinar’s meaning. If you would like to quote these sources from the original, please watch the video and the webinar, as seen above.
2. 2015 statistical release of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

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