London Mayor Boris Johnson yesterday outlined plans to make the city “the cleanest, greenest city on earth” by the 2012 Olympics and called for commitments from other world cities at a climate change conference.
Leaders of the world’s 40 largest cities, plus 17 affiliate municipalities, are meeting in Seoul this week for a summit on combating global warming — the third to be held since 2005.
“What we should do in Seoul is agree that we will stop the endless addiction of mankind to the internal combustion engine,” said Johnson.
He told a press conference the world’s cities consume 75 percent of its energy and produce 80 percent of the emissions that cause climate change.
“The problem of our planet is an urban problem,” Johnson said, calling for “serious results” in Seoul. “I don’t want to walk away with a communique which contains nothing but warm words and hot air ... it’s important we agree some specific measures.”
He said the British capital wanted to use the Olympics “to drive the greening and the improvement of our city” and noted that London was committed to reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2025.
Johnson said the key measure was addressing the problems relating to domestic and commercial buildings, which accounted for 70 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in London.
This involved retrofitting — installing lagging — in large numbers of public buildings.
Johnson proclaimed himself a “passionate cyclist” and said he would push ahead with cycle super-highways around London.
He also called for “real progress” by cities worldwide towards the electrification of municipal fleets and other vehicles.
“That’s one of the things we are hoping to achieve in Seoul,” he said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS