The London mayor's views on sustainability

The London mayor's views on sustainabilityEvery year, thousands of Londoners lose their lives prematurely because of our city's filthy air.Toxic air hampers children's lung development and is linked to health problems such as cancer, dementia and heart disease.Health professionals know this better than anyone because they see the consequences of our filthy air first hand in many of their patients.I am one of those patients myself, having been diagnosed with asthma only a few years ago.Analysis from King's College found that most of London's NHS facilities, including hospitals and GP surgeries, are in areas where air pollution is well above legal limits.This harms patients and health workers alike.I refuse to stand idly by while Londoners' health is threatened in this way.I have made air quality one of my top priorities, implementing the most ambitious clean-air strategy of any city in the world.My package of hard-hitting measures includes a new T-charge to deter the dirtiest vehicles from central London, an expansion of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone, and £800 million to tackle air pollution -nearly doubling previous budgets.Right now, I'm prioritising the most-polluted areas with Low-Emission Bus Zones.Electric buses are being rolled out and all 9,000 London buses will be running at a clean standard by 2020, with a full, zero-emission bus network by 2037.We are also requiring new taxis to be zero-emission capable, and delivering electric vehicle charge points across London.In the longer run, I'm aiming for a wholly zero-emission transport system by 2050.My new alerts system means that when air pollution is set to get particularly bad, alerts are sent out online and displayed at locations across the city, including at thousands of bus stops and all Tube stations.This enables Londoners to take action to protect themselves.We're also working with air quality specialists to ensure that care homes, schools and GP surgeries get more detailed information too.In the NHS, I'm working with the NHS Confederation to clean up ambulance emissions, move hospitals' backup diesel generators to batteries, and we're looking at using the 1,000 acres of NHS land in London to generate solar power.Many of these policies also have the effect of lowering our carbon emissions, reducing London's climate change impact and helping reach our goal of a zero-carbon city by 2050.