London struggling to meet 2030 emissions target [Video]

A progress report on the Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP) forced city councillors to confront some tough realities about the likelihood that London can achieve its first set of emissions targets in 2030.

“Essentially we’re going to have to drop our emissions by 35 per cent from where we are right now [by] 2030, in five and a half years, which is more than they’ve dropped between 2005 and 2024,” Coun. Skylar Franke told colleagues on the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee.

According to the report, energy use is declining on a per capita basis, however, overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the community reached 3.11 megatonnes in 2023, higher than the 3.07 megatonnes released in 2019 when council declared a climate emergency.

It’s the second consecutive year that community-wide GHG emissions have increased since the pandemic.

While councilors praised the steps taken by Civic Administration to lower emissions from …