Mayor of London calls for more trees to offset carbon

05/08/2009

In response to fears about rising temperatures in London, Mayor Boris Johnson is calling for an additional two million trees to be planted in the capital.

Johnson’s environment plan projects that the temperature in London could rise by four degrees Celsius by 2080, leading to many safety and health problems. The capital is susceptible to urban heat island effect, which is caused when buildings absorb and release heat.

The mayor says that planting many more trees before 2025 will help to offset the heat rise and will absorb carbon emitted into the atmosphere by the city, helping to reduce climate change.
He is calling for investment into the planting of trees and the covering of roofs and walls with plants and trees to help lower the temperature.

Boris Johnson’s environment advisor, Isabel Dedring, says “people really struggle to see how an old, Victorian built-up city like London can really be a low carbon city, which if you look at the targets, it needs to be.” She adds, “there are lots of things we can do collectively to offset those rises, and we have to start doing that now.”

So far, 1,500 of the 10,000 trees promised in Boris Johnson's election campaign have been planted.