Cash needed to save planet

LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson has calculated that London needs �60bn from public and private sources to be invested in the next 15 years for the capital to play its part in tackling climate change, the biggest environmental challenge facing the planet. Lond

LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson has calculated that London needs �60bn from public and private sources to be invested in the next 15 years for the capital to play its part in tackling climate change, the biggest environmental challenge facing the planet.

London also needs several hundred million spent in the next few years to tackle the city's serious air pollution.

This kind of money was found to bail out the banks and we have to act with equal urgency to save the planet.

Building and refurbishing homes and workplaces to the most energy-efficient standards and developing local secure energy supplies would create a wider variety of jobs than subsidies to banker bonuses, including many new jobs for plumbers, builders and engineers.

Investment in this kind of infrastructure will be rewarded in future years through lower energy prices and reliable energy supplies.

This is the kind of investment which can help bring us out of recession and I will be pushing the Mayor to lobby hard for London to receive the finance it needs. - CLLR DARREN JOHNSON, Green Party Member, London Assembly, City Hall.