London to collaborate with Los Angeles on air quality innovations

London and Los Angeles have signed an agreement to become ‘Innovator Cities’ and work together on some of the biggest issues facing transportation, including air pollution.

This agreement will enable the cities to work together to develop innovation challenges, identifying where similar problems exist and making sure that solutions developed in either city can work elsewhere in the world.

The agreement would also give companies the opportunity to take part in ‘start-up exchanges’, which would allow start-ups to pitch their best ideas in both London and LA. 

The approach will be first trialled through the London FreightLab Innovation Challenge, which launched last month.

London FreightLab is calling for the best innovators in the UK to come up with ideas which make freight in London safer, cleaner and more efficient.

Through the new agreement, the winning innovators could be given the opportunity to pitch their solution to the Mayor’s Office for the City of Los Angeles, for the opportunity to go and test their idea in another global city.

Applications are open to everybody and full details are available here. The deadline for applying is midday today (February 5).

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: ‘London and Los Angeles are two of the world’s boldest and most innovative cities, so it makes perfect sense for us to join forces with the aim of addressing some of the biggest transport challenges facing us today.

‘Working together enables us to share best practice, promote new ideas and find pioneering solutions that could be replicated in other cities around the globe.’

Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti, said: ‘Los Angeles is a global hub for transportation innovation – and we are ready to test-drive new ideas, inventions, and innovations on our streets and in our neighbourhoods right now.

‘Our partnership with London is about putting the best concepts in the world onto our local roads and railways, taking steps together to help us reduce traffic, cut carbon emissions, and build resilient cities for the future.’

London and Los Angeles have signed up the C40 Cities declaration on air quality, which commits to World Health Organisation guidelines on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by 2030.