Friends of the Earth rank Ken as best on environment
Friends of the Earth today ranked Ken Livingstone as the ‘greenest' of the 3 major candidates to be Mayor of London
Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper said:
"As Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone has put environmental issues at the heart of his policy making. He is one of the few British politicians to have shown genuine leadership on green issues and put London at the forefront of efforts to tackle climate change. His manifesto is full of exciting plans to go even further. Of the three main candidates for London Mayor, Ken Livingstone is the greenest."
Ken Livingstone said:
"I am delighted that Friends of the Earth have brought to Londoners' attention the clear choice they face.
"Boris Johnson's main contribution to environmental policy was as a cheerleader for George W Bush's disastrous decision to oppose the Kyoto climate treaty.
"It didn't seem possible six weeks ago, but Boris Johnson's environmental policies have got even worse during the course of the campaign. At the start he tried to hoodwink Londoners with his opposition to a new Heathrow runway, but his minders couldn't keep the true Boris under wraps throughout, and last week he revealed that his "big idea" for London is to build a new airport in the Thames Gateway.
"The election is neck and neck and everyone who cares about the environment needs to vote for me to stop Boris Johnson wrecking London's environment."
Friends of the Earth's verdict follows a string of similar statements from leading environmentalists. These include:
Jonathan Porritt, chair of the Sustainable Development Commission and Co-Director of The Prince of Wales's Business and Environment Programme, wrote:
'The prospect of Boris as Mayor of London is just so scary. Either he is a genuine, out-and-out buffoon, in which case London becomes a laughing stock alongside its Mayor, or he is a pseudo-buffoon, in which case his true ideological nastiness will soon be revealed. The prospect of Boris taking over London's Climate Change Action Plan is even scarier. He may have learnt not to reveal his full contrarian bigotry on climate change, but he really doesn't get it, and would rapidly scale back or completely get rid of the ambitious targets in the Action Plan. And that would be a massive set back.'
- Jeremy Leggett, Chairman of the UK's leading solar business, SolarCentury, said
‘Ken Livingstone has shown genuine leadership on climate change. Clean tech businesses in London would have a real chance under him as Mayor.
"Under a climate change denier like Boris Johnson, we would have to fear for our futures, and for the jobs of all the hundreds who work for us. We would also have to fear for the physical security of the city itself, under the assault of unmitigated global warming, were others to follow Johnson's 'lead' on climate change."
- John Vidal, environment editor of the Guardian said
"Ken is so far ahead of Boris on everything that really, really matters that he is out of sight. I have looked at Boris Johnson's manifesto and he says is going to "move towards" the 60% cuts that are Ken's targets by 2025. But we all know that "move towards" means "I am not going to do anything at all". It would basically set back climate change by about twenty years, it would put Boris Johnson somewhere behind George Bush right now and he might as well just sign up with Exxon. It's ludicrous actually, and it's very frightening as well."
- Geoffrey Lean, environment editor of the Independent on Sunday, wrote
‘The Mayor quoted me as saying, in these pages, that Boris has been "one of the least environmentally friendly politicians in the country". I'll say that again. And, at the risk of getting in deeper, I'll go further: Ken is one of the world's greenest leaders.'
Notes to editors
- Last week's Unison/Mori poll on the London Mayoral election (www.kenlivingstone.com/media/ken_livingstone_moves_into_clear_lead_in_london_mayoral_race ) , found that:
- 28% of Londoners say that "pollution/environment" will be "very important in helping decide who to vote for"
- Of these 61% say Ken Livingstone is "best able to deal with" the issue; with only 23% citing Boris Johnson, a gap of 38%.
- Friends of the Earth's statement on the Mayoral candidates is available at : www.foe.co.uk/resource/media_briefing/london_green_mayor.pdf