Europe, Clean Air, Climate Change and London

By Claude Moraes MEP

At Labour’s National Policy Forum on Saturday, Ed Miliband restated Labour’s absolute commitment to tackling climate change and to keeping the environmental agenda at the centre of UK politics.

It is understandable that in this period of austerity, these issues will drop down the list of people’s concerns. Yet it is important to maintain this priority for the long term.

As a Labour MEP for London, I naturally always want to promote a green, sustainable and healthy capital city. Central to this aim is improving the quality of the air we Londoners breathe – something the World Health Organization has flagged up as a growing concern in Britain, particularly in my constituency.

In fact, it’s estimated that during the course of 2008, 4,267 premature deaths occurred in London as a result of poor air, a statistic supported by the UK government. In addition, 50,000 British citizens every year could be dying prematurely as a result of poor air quality’s impact on pre-existing conditions such as asthma and heart disease.

Europe has been acting on this issue. In 2008, the European Council adopted the Air Quality Directive, designed to address and improve ambient air quality. Aiming to prevent or reduce the harmful effects of poor air quality, the deadline for complying with the directive was June, this year. So why haven’t we seen more improvements?

London Mayor Boris Johnson is certainly making all the right noises about this aim. He has laid down certain aims in his “Mayor of London’s Air Quality Strategy ” But even with a 20% cut in traffic-related C02 emissions, one of Johnson’s stated aims, the air quality in London would not reach EU targets. Parts of London have in fact already broken new EU limits for pollution levels since June and the EU is pursuing legal action against the UK government.

Boris Johnson’s air quality strategy simply does not lead London and the UK to a better quality of air, the first step to which would surely be to simply comply with basic European air quality regulations.

As a Labour MEP, I’m also aware of the importance of this to public health.

It’s not simply a matter of checking boxes (resentfully perhaps if they are EU boxes) but it is also imperative to strongly engage in the arguments for why clean air matters. I’m thinking here in particular of the London 2012 Olympics, where all eyes will be focused on our capital city and businesses and governments alike will decided for themselves what to make of the quality of life, and so investment opportunities, in London.

Air is more important than politics. And healthy, clean air is critical for any capital. In the run up to the London 2012 Games, London may become an example of how to run a great global city, or it may not.

Making sure it does is a matter of ensuring the health and well-being of its residents come first.