Parents walk their children to school in Hornchurch, Essex (PA)
(Picture: PA Archive)Cities are at the forefront of the battle to avert catastrophic climate change, and London continues to lead the way. Our Mayor, newly installed as chair of the C40 group of cities committed to tackling climate change, has already pledged to make the capital zero carbon by 2030.
It is critical that we learn best practice from each other. So we watch with interest Andy Burnham’s ambition to deliver the UK’s first carbon-neutral transport network in Greater Manchester.
Small changes can make a big difference. As we report today, a project that gave London students backpacks fitted with toxic air sensors led to nearly a third of families changing how they travelled to school, cutting carbon emissions and improving London’s dirty air.
In Manchester, they are trialling side road zebra crossing to encourage more people to walk rather than drive short distances. We all have an interest in reducing emissions and cleaning up our air.
The hope is that more trials of this nature are found to be successful and can be rolled out across the country.
