London mayor launches world's first climate adaptation strategy

London mayor Boris Johnson today claimed a world first for London, unveiling a major climate change adaptation strategy designed to prepare the capital for higher temperatures and increased flood risk.

Environmentalists welcomed the move, but criticised Johnson for so far failing to produce a similar strategy for cutting the city's carbon emissions.

The strategy outlines the risked posed by climate change, including increased incidence of flooding, tidal surges, droughts and heat waves, such as the summer of 2003 in which 600 Londoners died as result of high temperatures.

It proposes a raft of new measures designed to address these risks, such as the extension of the city's parks and green spaces to create natural cooling areas, improved management of the Thames' tributaries to reduce flood risks, enhanced tidal flood defences, and public programmes to curb water use.

"We need to concentrate efforts to slash carbon emissions and become more energy efficient in order to prevent dangerous climate change," said Johnson. " But we also need to prepare for how our climate is expected to change in the future."

He added that the strategy - which will now be open to consultation with Greater London Authority bodies, such as Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Authority - will also put London in a good position to export its expertise in climate adaptation to other large cities.

"London is not unique - all major cities such as New York and Tokyo are at risk from climate change," he observed. "By producing this strategy, we put London in a position of strength."

However, green groups argued that the mayor should focus more of his efforts on cutting carbon emissions.

“It is essential that the capital prepares for the impacts of climate change, " said Friends of the Earth's London campaigner Jenny Bates. “But Boris Johnson is also committed to cutting London’s carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent by 2025 in order to prevent dangerous climate change – and has so far failed to explain how he will achieve this."

She added that the onus was now on Johnson to provide a "comprehensive action plan for reducing London's emissions that includes ways to make it cheaper and easier for Londoners to go green".