Johnson launches London green strategy

Combined Heat and Power plants will deliver 25 per cent of London’s energy locally by 2025, Boris Johnson said in his flagship speech on the environment today.

Johnson, who has denounced environmental campaigners as "eco-moralists" in the past, unveiled the headline measure as part of a series of initiatives aimed at improving the city's environmental footprint and creating green collar jobs.

Johnson today admitted that climate change is a major threat.

"But it also creates new opportunities for us as a city," he said. "Volatile oil prices and an economic downturn are coming together to make action on climate change a potential boom industry. I want to unleash the potential to create a thriving eco-economy in London providing new green collar jobs, skills and businesses."

As well as the CHP plants, a programme will be set up to educate citizens on energy efficiency, all city lighting will become more efficient including LED traffic lights, and more council vehicles will become electric.

And a Building Energy Efficiency Programme will be expanded to include all public sector buildings, which represent 25 per cent of all commercial carbon emissions in London.

More than £100,000 will be made available to invest in new waste and recycling technologies.

There was no mention of a decision on the western extension to the congestion charge, or of creating an electric car network in the vein of Paris and San Francisco, or of a decision on a third runway at Heathrow.

Later, climate change minister Ed Miliband refused to rule out a third runway in his speech to the Environment Agency.

"I can promise we are looking carefully at all the issues involved in Heathrow's third runway, including air quality, before making a decision," he said.

"We are clear that having legislated, again for the first time, to take account of aviation in our targets through the climate change bill, any growth in emissions in aviation will have to be made up by deeper cuts elsewhere."

Miliband also admitted the government needed to do more to encourage the development of offshore wind, carbon capture and storage.