No ‘silver bullet’ for fixing London pollution

London Assembly’s Jenny Jones says there is no quick fix to improve air quality in the capital at European elections launch

There is no ‘silver bullet’ for fixing air pollution in the UK capital, Green London Assembly member Jenny Jones has warned.

Ms Jones, who attended the launch of her Party’s manifesto for the upcoming European elections on May 22 today (April 28), called on Mayor of London Boris Johnson to address the growing problem of pollution in the city.

Jenny Jones said there is no ‘silver bullet’ for fixing air pollution

The Green politician also commented on Mr Johnson’s plans to increase the number of electric vehicles on London’s roads — from the proposed automotive equivalent of the ‘Boris bike’ scheme to the Mayor’s ambition to have all new taxis registered from 2018 to be ‘zero emission capable’ (see airqualitynews.com story).

Speaking to airqualitynews.com, Ms Jones said: “Boris is doing some of the right things, but we are just exporting the pollution elsewhere to wherever the power needed to generate these electric vehicles comes from.

“The government has to do something, Boris has to do something, I have to do something and you have to do something. There is no silver bullet to fix this even if people seem to think there is one — the issue is just so big and so complex.”

Last year, Ms Jones questioned the lack of targets for nitrogen dioxide reduction as part of the ultra-low emission strategy, describing Defra’s admission that London may not meet current EU limits for the pollutant until 2025 as ‘worrying’.

Her latest comments follow accusations made by London Assembly Labour Group health spokesman Onkar Sahota earlier this month that the Mayor had shown ‘complacency’ in downplaying concerns over the capital’s air quality (see airqualitynews.com story).