CO2 Charge for London

One of the founding aims of the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s was for congestion charging in London to fairly reflect the level of emissions produced by cars driven in the centre of the city.

This would have discouraged big urban 4x4s, sports and executive cars with high emissions, and encouraged cleaner cars.

After several years of campaigning with petitions, events, research and detailed reports into how it could be done, London Mayor Ken Livingstone agreed to consult on our proposal in 2006.

In late 2007, after a positive response from London's citizens, it was announced that the CO2 Charge would go ahead in October 2008.

It would provide free access for the cleanest cars and a £25 charge for the most polluting vehicles (for normal cars the charge would stay the same). We were delighted.

BUT disaster struck! In 2008, Ken Livingstone was replaced as Mayor by Boris Johnson, who had pledged to cancel the CO2 Charge if elected, and to shrink the size of London's Congestion Charge zone.

We got together with other transport campaigners to challenge Boris, asking how he was going to keep up the momentum on cleaner travel (and cleaner air) without these measures.

Hundreds of postcards and letters were sent in to City Hall asking Boris the following questions:

1. What meaningful incentives will he provide for people to choose lower CO2 cars in London?
2. How will he now raise the money for London’s £50 million a year cycling budget? (The CO2 Charge was going to provide this money)
3. How will he improve road safety for pedestrians and cyclists, particularly on the school run? (Road collisions are a bigger danger to young people than gun and knife crime)
4. What will he do to make sure London’s air quality meets European legal standards by 2012? (Many of the most deadly particulates come from private, diesel-powered vehicles)

Download a copy of the postcard here, or click on the image opposite.

After the postcards and letters were delivered, no-one received a single reply from the new Mayor.

Since then, cycling budgets have stopped increasing and have been underspent (see Green AM Jenny Jones' report here), air pollution problems have grown worse (see the Clean Air in London campaign's work here) and fares have been increased on buses and tubes to plug the holes left in TfL's budget by Boris' cuts.

Now, we are starting to see the number of gas-guzzling cars sold in London increase again, after many years of decline (more on this new evidence soon).

A CO2 Charge is needed more than ever, and we will be calling on all candidates in the 2012 election to support our call for its reintroduction. Watch this space!