Climate action is an election winner
Having spearheaded bold policies to clean up London’s air, Sadiq Khan comfortably won re-election—for a record third time.
Last week, Sadiq Khan won an historic third term as Mayor of London, becoming the first person to do so since the role of Mayor of London was established in 2000.
This was an important win for mayors around the world that are taking action on the climate crisis, because—despite the role of mayors being a complex and diverse one—the London election had been portrayed as a referendum on the city’s recently expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).
The ULEZ was introduced by Mayor Sadiq Khan in 2019 to clean up London’s air by imposing a charge on the older, most polluting vehicles that disproportionately contribute to air pollution. It’s a serious health issue in London, with a high incidence of asthma, particularly among children in lower income communities. Prior to the ULEZ, it was a rare event for air quality in the city to meet WHO limits—typically being far worse. And that has proven negative impacts on other health issues, like cancer.
The policy aims at benefiting everyone by asking a minority of Londoners to change either their vehicle or their travel mode. Owners of older, more polluting vehicles could access a scrappage scheme to support them in switching to a cleaner alternative (a cleaner vehicle or subsidised public transport) and many qualified for discounts and exemptions.
According to the latest Census in 2021, only 58% of households in London have a car, but many don’t use it often. 62% of all trips in the city are either via active or public transport. Among the private vehicles on London streets, Transport for London, the city’s transit authority, estimated in 2020 that 75% already met the clean air standards and so would not be affected by the ULEZ charge.
The ULEZ initially covered only inner London, but in August 2023 it was expanded to the whole city. Ahead of the expansion, the city also introduced the Superloop, a network of express bus services in outer London, to offer more public transport alternatives to car travel—a crucial element of successful low emission zones.
The ULEZ expansion attracted the criticism of some of Mayor Khan’s opponents, who were betting that attacking the policy would prove an election winner. Even British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sought the validation of the ULEZ early critics, though in doing so he may have delivered a fatal blow to his re-election chances. Voters cast their vote and the results are clear: opposing climate action is no winning ticket. (The one mayoral seat the British Conservatives won last week was that of the Tees Valley, in the North East of England, where their candidate ran on a campaign to support the local green industry.)
Mayor Khan’s resounding electoral success proves that doing the right thing for the climate and the health of residents is a vote winner. Not only did he win a third term, but he did so by increasing his share of votes even in the traditionally more conservative outer boroughs that had been affected by the latest ULEZ expansion.
Why did he win?
Bold climate action wins elections because it is popular and people know it is needed. In fact, they want more, not less. The ULEZ was clearly implemented to address real concerns about climate and health that people understood and could get behind;
Mayor Khan listened to concerns, particularly from low income residents concerned about affordability, and made adjustments to initial proposals—for example by making the scrappage scheme easier to access and more generous;
Civil society mobilized through the Clean Air Wins campaign to tell their message to their neighbours—that they wanted to live in a city where the air was safe to breathe, and the city did its part to help address climate change.
These facts matter. But the big takeaway from the London election? Well-designed, bold climate policies that benefit residents’ health won’t hurt your approval ratings. In fact, they are a winning strategy.
🇸🇪 Clean air in Stockholm too
In other clean air news, have you heard that just this week Stockholm City Council voted to approve the new Miljözon klass 3? What is it, you ask? It’s a plan to reserve twenty blocks of the inner city to low-emission vehicles from 31 December 2024 in an effort to improve air quality. This is part of Stockholm's plan to make the inner city emission free by 2030. Stockholm’s ambition was rightly praised by other European mayors who are leading climate action in their cities, too.
📚 What we are reading
: I’ve been assigned Adrift by Lisa Brideau by my book club—stay tuned for comments.
: I’m reading Michael Sandel’s Justice, having really enjoyed his What Money Can’t Buy on the moral limits of markets. I am finding Justice great for thinking about what makes a policy just and why others may not see things the same way. If you’re more of a visual or audio learner, you may enjoy Professor Sandel’s free online Harvard course on the same topic.
