Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance’s Post

First, be the city’s first green mayor To be clear, Khan was never squeamish about leadership. Years ago, he started calling himself the first green mayor of London and recently reaffirmed that his determination to “ensure London leads from the front with world-leading climate action remains as strong as ever”. Uncowed on climate, Khan has led from the front with other mayors like former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, calling on cities globally to divest from fossil fuels too. Importantly, Khan understands that you can be a city’s first green mayor while simultaneously tackling issues of unaffordable housing and homelessness, street crime and the rising cost of living. He understands that you can clean up the River Thames and scale up charging for electric vehicles while also helping London be safer and more affordable for everyone.

Second, prioritise public health and safety Early in his tenure, Khan smartly tackled London’s persistent and deadly air pollution by introducing creative and compelling anti-idling campaigns in highly visible ways on the streets of London as well as extending the Ultra Low Emission Zone to the whole of metropolitan London to begin chipping away at the 40,000 early deaths that annually result from the toxic air pollution in the UK. Khan minced no words when doing any of this, calling London’s air “lethal” and naming the city’s air pollution as a “national health crisis”, saying that he refused to “stand back as thousands of Londoners breathe in air so filthy that it shortens our life expectancy, harms our lungs and worsens chronic illness”. This is how you make the climate all about public health and safety.

Third, go big and go global Khan’s climate leadership style understands that everything is interconnected, that it takes all of us to fight climate change and that no one can be left behind. Khan could’ve kept his sights on London only but smartly seized the global stage at the UN climate talks and more, co-chairing the environmental non-profit C40 and leading initiatives to call for 50 million good, green jobs by the end of the decade. By going global, Khan illustrated his leadership mettle. In addressing the climate-related needs of the Global South, Khan simultaneously signalled to his constituents in London, some of whom hail from the Global South, that he understands their increasingly interconnected climate reality.