London Mayor Ken Livingstone has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with his Stockholm counterpart Kristina Axén Olin on a programme to tackle climate change.
The memorandum follows talks held in June between the Deputy Mayor of London, Nicky Gavron and Vice Mayor of Stockholm, Ulla Hamilton and sets out the exchange of information and expertise on planning and delivering low carbon developments, planning for climate change impacts and the monitoring and usage of transport statistics.
Stockholm is already working with the C40 large cities group which was set up by and is chaired by Ken Livingstone. The body seeks to accelerate and strengthen cities’ programmes to combat climate change. The C40 cities, and affiliates such as Stockholm, have pledged to work together, to share best practice and to take action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Mayor Livingstone said “Stockholm is leading the way on making climate change policy a top priority so it makes sense that we share our expertise to achieve our aims much more rapidly. This agreement is the result of extensive talks between our offices on the best way to realize our shared goals and demonstrates that no one city or authority can do this on their own.”
“With over half the world’s people living in cities and producing three quarters of global emissions, it is action in our towns and cities that will really determine how we can tackle the threat of catastrophic climate change.”
Mayor Kristina Axén Olin said she was “very pleased that London and Stockholm have agreed to learn from each other. The cooperation between our two cities will help improve the environment and conditions for our citizens and will be mutually beneficial for our cities.”
