The mayor must act on global warming

I welcome today's strategy on coping with climate change, but it's time Boris Johnson backed up his amusing words with action

Jenny Jones
guardian.co.uk,
Friday August 29 2008 15:30 BST

I'm asking myself when the honeymoon period for the new mayor will be over, and when Londoners can be expected to see real progress rather than lots of erudite chatter and vague promises. This administration seems to lack any sense of urgency about the terrifying issue of climate change, preferring instead to tackle the issue of drinking on the tube (when was that a problem?) and cutting as much as they can from the GLA budget without first understanding what valuable work, and where, was being done.
The mayor's adaptation strategy, launched today, is about how London will cope with the changes to its climate from carbon emissions that have already been produced and are already doing damage. I welcome its arrival and look forward to the companion piece, the mitigation strategy, later this year. Having the adaptation strategy does not mean you accept future emissions, just that you are preparing to deal with already unavoidable climate changes due to emissions produced so far. The mitigation strategy is about how to reduce our future emissions and our burden on the rest of the planet.
However, this adaptation strategy is largely the same as that prepared under the previous, much-maligned administration. All the ideas are sound, all are component parts of resisting the inevitable encroachment of climate change, with its floods and shortages, but the crucial part is understanding when and how it will be delivered.
Therefore, Greens are now calling for strong and timely action from the mayor. A litmus test would be support for speedy delivery of the East London Green Grid, a massive project that has mapped all the green areas in the Thames Gateway and seeks to protect them for food growing space, leisure space and flood defences. It will mean that the future development of that area, with its houses, shops and businesses, will be better to live in, work in and visit. It's an excellent and necessary scheme for the health of us all, delivered by Design for London, which Johnson has wound up. So in spite of all his fine words so far on the environment, will projects like the Green Grid, nurtured by the previous mayor, be thrown out because he doesn't really get the environment?
Please, enough very amusing chat, just get on with the job.