Boris Johnson"s indifference to pollution is killing us | Ken Livingstone

‘Cabs and buses stay a massive source of diesel pollution, but electric buses are now offered.’ Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

The information that Oxford Street is the world’s most polluted spot comes as no shock to these folks who work in or go to central London. What will shock them, nevertheless, is the scale of death triggered by London’s air good quality.

Back in 2000 when I grew to become mayor, the government’s healthcare advisers estimated that every single yr one,200 Londoners would die prematurely – by an regular of eight months. The major trigger was the nitrous gases (NOx) and particulate matter (PM10s) which pass directly into the blood stream, triggering heart attacks, strokes and cancer.

When we introduced the congestion charge in central London, each NOxs and PM10s had been lower by much more than 10%. With this instance to guidebook us, we set out to turn the complete of better London into a lower emission zone (LEZ) by generating sure that heavy products automobiles filtered their automobile exhausts.

When the scheme came into force, my intention was to tighten the criteria and gradually lengthen it to all items cars, but Boris Johnson deferred this method as one particular of his very first acts as mayor. Two many years later, in 2010, the government’s medical advisers updated their evaluation of London’s air quality with the surprising conclusion that four,300 Londoners died prematurely every single 12 months – by an common of eleven and a half years.

Johnson also faced the prospect that London would be fined £300m by the EU for breaching air good quality standards. His response was to lobby the EU to defer the fine whilst employing attractive youthful females to hand out leaflets urging individuals not to leave their auto engines operating whilst stationary. I experimented with to make this a central situation in the 2012 mayoral election, but Johnson’s response was constantly to assure the audience he had the matter in hand and it gained small media consideration.

1 of the worst causes of London’s fatal air high quality is diesel engines, and the LEZ must now be adapted to discourage all consumers from driving diesel engines in the city. Cabs and buses stay a big supply of diesel pollution, but electric buses are now offered. In the Chinese city of Shenzen, three,000 electric buses are presently functioning on their streets. London does not have one particular. The charging mechanism for the buses could also be available to our black cabs.

Ahead of the final election, I met the manufacturers creating electrical buses. In exchange for a contract to replace London’s 8,000 buses more than a five-year time period, we would have been ready to get a deal in which they had been produced in Britain, therefore saving lives and creating good jobs. Johnson’s existing policy is that this is an situation that are not able to be tackled just before 2020, as a result dooming thousands a lot more Londoners to an early death. We need to make sure it is an situation at the 2016 mayoral election.

Boris Johnson"s indifference to pollution is killing us | Ken Livingstone