Interview: London readies for 'energy revolution'[de] 

The mastermind behind the now-renowned congestion charge, London Vice-Mayor Nicky Gavron, is widely seen as a pioneer in sustainable city planning. She spoke to EurActiv while on a visit to Brussels in June.

• The role of cities in fighting climate change

"When it comes to practical action on the ground, cities have to be centre stage," Gavron said. And she believes that cities can have an easier time filling ambitious environmental objectives. "That’s because they have the planning ability. They in fact run most of the environmental infrastructure – and build it. They run transport. They also have that density of property, and activity, and population, which means that it is going to be easier – in a way – to reduce emissions in cities."

Together with London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Gavron helped shape a climate-change action plan that was launched in February 2007. The plan's aim, she says, is to reduce CO2 emissions in London from as much as 60% by 2025.

"We’ve set up a climate-change action plan to show how we could meet those targets, and what we’re saying is that without government help, we could meet 30% by 2025, but to get to 60%, we need more help."

• Energy-efficiency and micro-generation key to 'energy revolution'

Key to meeting the CO2-reduction target is replacing existing power stations with new, more efficient equipment. "The majority of emissions globally come from inefficient power stations, whether they are coal, gas, oil, nuclear," Gavron explains. "These power stations lose up to 70% of their primary energy. They also waste all their heat, so there is a double loss."

What the London authority intends to do now is replace the equipment. "Of course, you are not going to completely replace power stations or the grid," says Gavron. "But you do not need to invest as much in new power stations or in an ageing infrastructure if you go for the new infrastructure - which is the energy revolution – which is generating your energy locally."

The mayor's top priority for reducing CO2 is to move away from reliance on the national grid and on to local, low-carbon energy supply. These include combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) stations, energy from waste and on-site renewable energy such as solar panels that can also be fitted to individual homes.

Gavron says decentralised generation is also raising a lot of interest from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg after the big blackout of 2006. "It means that the whole of south London or part of Manhattan does not black out, because you have neighbourhood islands, and you can trade between these islands, and you could balance loads, and you could complement the grid too. It is extremely efficient – both in terms of CO2 and in terms of money."

• Renewable energy from waste, 'the new paradigm'

A key source of energy that Gavron is hoping to use for decentralised generation is waste, which she says is "the new paradigm in terms of renewables in cities".

"We are looking at taking our organic waste - which is a very big part of the London dustbin – and putting it through anaerobic digestion to create composting and biogas."

"We want 15% of our renewables to come from our waste."

• Barriers to the 'energy revolution'

However, Gavron says regulatory barriers are preventing these developments from taking place. "There are barriers in Britain to the amount you can put in on decentralised energy in domestic areas. You cannot actually do more than a thousand units at a time, and of course that does not work with existing buildings – it is alright with new build, but you cannot really completely do a whole neighbourhood in that way."

And she says the EU could also help, by generalising support mechanisms for renewable energy. "For instance, Germany has a feed-in tariff for solar power, and they have a hundred times more of that form of energy than we do because of it. So what we need to see Europe doing is taking the highest standards and making them the norm."

"If you do that, the price will tumble for solar electricity, and other forms of micro-generation. Why shouldn’t homes become mini power stations? Feeding into the distribution grid – that is the way forward. And, if you look at the continuum, it goes from the single home to the bigger development, to the neighbourhood."

She also denounces what she calls "perverse incentives" which continue to apply at national level. "In our country, you actually get rewarded – the more energy you use, the less you pay. We need to turn these kinds of perverse incentives around."

• Green buildings

Another focus of the London climate-change action plan is reducing emissions from homes, as they are the largest single source of CO2 in London, at nearly 40% of the total.

"We have a Green Homes Programme , and we're looking at helping Londoners to be as energy-efficient as possible. We're offering cut-price loft insulation, cut-price cavity wall insulation," she says - a programme that is run by a newly set up climate-change agency.

But here too, there are some regulatory hurdles. "We in London have no powers as such for existing buildings, so that’s quite a problem for us," Gavron explains. "So, what we’re looking at is new build, but new build is only 1% of the floor space of London."

• Tackling air pollution with a new 'low emissions zone'

Moving to air-pollution problems in central London, Gavron has new ideas for 2008, to complement the congestion charge which has been in place since 2003. 

"The next thing we are doing is next year. We are introducing a low-emission zone for the whole of Greater London."

According to Gavron, this will mean taking "the big polluting lorries, taxis, buses and coaches" and making sure that their engine complies with Euro emission-standards.

"I think we will be beginning with Euro-3, but we’ll be ratcheting it up to Euro-4 very quickly," Gavron says. "And the fines are going to be such that you would not enter London if you were polluting," she adds.

Gavron also has plans to fine-tune the existing congestion charge system. "What we are doing now is looking at a variable charge on congestion charging. The potential there is to have road charging with differential charges for different times of day, different journey lengths, and of course, tied to your engine size, and the cleanliness of the fuel."