Painting by Lakshmi Shree, India

Asian countries have an important stake in this year’s climate change negotiations and, as a result, a critical part to play in the negotiations.

Climate change is hitting the Asian continent already and big global decisions will be made this year. An agreement to cut greenhouse gases emissions will hopefully exceed what the Kyoto agreement previously negotiated.

The negotiations over the rest of the year will culminate in the new Copenhagen Agreement in Denmark in December 2009 at the 15th conference of the parties (COP 15) on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The main focus, agreed just over a year ago at the 13th conference of the parties in Bali, Indonesia, consist of four building blocks, of which two – “Mitigation” and “Adaptation” – are considered major.

The former denotes actions by the major emitting countries to reduce their emissions and to prevent that future dangerous climate change. The latter seeks to ensure that countries vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change are duly assisted with technology and funding to cope. The other two building blocks include technology transfers for both mitigation and adaptation and innovative financing for mitigation and adaptation.

The most immediate concern for Asia is the issue of Adaptation and funding for it. Estimates of global adaptation funding range from tens to hundreds of billions of dollars a year. These funds will need to come from “new and additional” sources not from previously rolled out development assistance.

A number of proposals to raise such significant sums for adaptation already exist, including a proposal by Bangladesh and formally adopted by the least developed countries (LDC) group at the Poznan meeting to charge an “adaptation levy” on all international air passengers. Estimates put the total figure at more than $10 billion a year.

Even if the LDC proposal ultimately falls over, at least it gives the group a strong card to play against other countries. They will need to assure funding in the tens of billions of dollars for adaptation to be acceptable to the LDC group, as well as other vulnerable countries and Africa group.

Asian countries need to use their strong presence within the LDC Group to build bridges and establish a common negotiating position with these other groups of most vulnerable countries, and the African group.

The focus on adaptation, however, should not distract us from also paying attention to the other major building block, mitigation, and formulating a clear strategy on the issue.

At the moment the strategy of countries like Bangladesh, together with the LDC group, is to call for a target temperature rise of “well below two degrees centigrade”. While not avoiding some damage, this will enable the world to survive climate change. Such an ambitious global temperature target is still far from certain as it will require very strong mitigation actions to be undertaken first by the developed countries and then also by some of the major developing countries.

Published in China Daily, 17 March 2009

Mainland Asia has a common source of water – the Tibetan glacier

The London Assembly today expressed concern at Mayor Boris Johnson’s recent decision not to proceed with stage three of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ).

Assembly Members called on the Mayor to proceed with the plans in order to reduce air pollution and improve Londoners’ health, and help meet European air quality standards.

Proposing the motion, Darren Johnson AM, told the Assembly:

"Air pollution continues to be a really serious problem for London, causing 1,000 premature deaths every year.  We were very surprised that rather than announcing much-needed additional measures to tackle this problem, the Mayor made a reckless and irresponsible decision to backtrack on the plans. 
“Not only is he playing with the health of Londoners, but he is also undermining the government’s case to the EU that it is taking air quality seriously in a bid to avoid a £300m fine.  We must do everything possible to push forward with the LEZ."

Murad Qureshi AM, who seconded the motion, said:

"Air pollution causes almost five times the number of fatalities as road accidents, so it beggars belief that air quality is not given higher priority.  Poor air quality can significantly reduce the lung capacity of children, causes asthma and affects the quality of life of the elderly. Boris Johnson must take his public health responsibilities seriously and reinstate the third phase of the LEZ.”

The full text of the motion is as follows:

"This Assembly expresses its concern at the Mayor’s stated intention not to proceed with implementation of stage three of the Low Emission Zone in 2010. The Assembly calls on the Mayor to proceed with implementation of stage three in 2010 as originally planned, so as to improve London’s air quality and the health of Londoners, and help meet European air quality standards."

See London Assembly press release, 18 March 2009

Murad Qureshi AM, vice-chair of the London Assembly Environment Committee has called on Olympic officials to use bus lanes for their official vehicles during the Olympic games in 2012.

Speaking after the latest rumour suggested that the Olympic VIP road network will prevent Local authorities collecting Londoners’ rubbish, Murad called upon the ODA to be more open about their plans. He said: "The ODA should make it clear what restrictions exactly they intend to place on other traffic in the capital. We want the Games to be a success along the roads of London, but at the moment all we’re getting is a whole load of rumours as to what disruption these VIP routes are going to cause to the rest of us."

He added: "We simply don’t have the space in London that they had in Beijing, to allocate dedicated lanes for these privileged few – why not put them on the bus lanes and let the rest of London’s traffic get on as usual? For example, on the Marylebone Road, two lanes would be restricted for public buses and taxis and the IOC VIPS, which would leave only one lane for private traffic."

There are reports today that the government is planning to introduce rules to make it harder to sell playing fields to property developers. 

Deputy Chair of the London Assembly Environment Committee, Murad Qureshi AM, who led an investigation into the loss of the capital’s playing fields, comments:

"Almost three years ago the Assembly warned that London’s future generations could end up as couch potatoes if action was not taken to protect playing fields. 

"Our investigation called for an effective use of the planning framework to protect playing fields, so we are pleased the government has listened. 

"The Olympic Games are not far off, but they will not leave a legacy of sports participation for young people if playing fields disappear under a sea of concrete.  We have to take action now – before it’s too late."

See London Assembly press release, 11 March 2009

Normally l’m knocking Boris on this blog, but I fully back the position he has taken over the issue of irregular migrants in London, as outlined in his interview on the Panorama programme “Immigration – Time for an Amnesty?” broadcast on the 9th of March.

That is, it’s impractical to expel the hundreds of thousands of irregular migrants already here and another solution is required. If they are making a contribution to society, we should regularise their status – as long as they have no criminal record, they have the ability to support themselves and their families, and they have been here for a considerable period of time.

Under instructions from the Mayor, GLA Economics has commissioned a study from the LSE on the economic impact of such an amnesty. It is as yet available only as an interim summary with a draft of the key Chapter 2, “Estimating the Size of the Target Population”, which puts the number of irregular migrants in London at around half a million.

With the Tory party leadership against an amnesty and his media backers like the Evening Standard opposed as well, it may seem surprising that Boris should have taken this stance.

No doubt it is part of his attempt re-brand himself as a friend of minority communities, after all the adverse publicity he faced during the mayoral election campaign last year over his comments about “piccaninnies” and “watermelon smiles”.

It should also be remembered that in deciding to commission a report on the economic impact of regularisation Boris was in large part responding to a motion in favour of an amnesty passed by the progressive alliance between Labour, the Greens and the Lib Dems on the London Assembly last October. The Tory Assembly Members voted against the motion along with the BNP’s Richard Barnbrook.

Nevertheless, credit where it’s due, Boris has taken the right line on this and his support for the principle of regularisation should be welcomed.

Murad outside a boarded-up Broadley Gardens

Mayor Boris Johnson has now told Londoners which parks he will be funding to improve the local environment. But Broadley Gardens, on the south side of Church Street in Marylebone, is not one of them, after local expectations were raised so high. I could say l told you so, but instead l think the pressure now is on the City of Westminster to do something urgently.

We do not have many open spaces in Church Street ward, particularly one as popular with young families as Broadley Gardens. It has already been boarded up for several months, since well before Christmas. The onus is clearly on the council to get it open again as soon as possible, and local residents need to make this clear to them.

Those of us who use Edgware Road tube station to travel west regularly will know full well how unreliable the Circle Line is. More often than not in order to reach destinations in West London beyond Gloucester Road you have to rely on other lines, like the District Line, even though this involves changing at Earl’s Court. It also appears that the Circle Line is stopped at the drop of a hat, when we have bad weather or the other lines are disrupted for any reason.

The new plan by Transport for London to extend the Circle Line to Hammersmith and increase the regularity of the service should mean that one of the worst lines on the tube map will get a whole lot better, but we could do with some other improvements.

Edgware Road station is central to the new arrangement and many things need to be done in and around that particular station. It has been in a big hole in the ground for many decades and clearly neglected, with an adverse impact on both passengers and London Underground employees. There is a lot of rubbish at the back of the station that needs to be cleared immediately (see picture below). Staff are still working and resting in temporary accommodation in the form of portacabins. The entrance on the Marylebone Road should be kept open more often and the signage to the Bakerloo Line is pretty awful.

Let’s try and get this all done before the enhanced service begins in December.

Has anyone noticed how much longer the lines of taxis are getting on taxi ranks at rail stations? Passing through Marylebone station on a daily basis as l do, l have noticed queues of black cabs waiting for passengers going around the block. It is the same picture at Paddington station where going around the block involves passing over a bridge at the back of the station, along the Harrow Road and even up to the Edgware Road. And that’s a very big block indeed!

While this is clearly a sign of the times, we don’t want the black cab trade shooting itself in the foot. But that may well be the case with the recent increase in taxi fares announced by the Public Carriage Office. This at a time when many corporate accounts have withdrawn from hiring black cabs to send their executives around town. It was for this reason that l tabled a question to the Mayor on black cab fare rises to which I received an answer indicating that Boris has not seen the evidence on the ground. This is clearly an aspect of London life that we need to keep an eye on during the downturn of the economy.

When “mutiny” is mentioned in the UK, the word usually conjures up images like the mutiny on the Bounty on the high seas. On the Indian sub-continent it is usually a reminder of the Sepoy mutiny of 1857, or rather the first war of independence as it is known to Indian nationalists. For Bangladeshis a mutiny sends alarm bells ringing, raising fears that the military have once again taken control of the country. Indeed it was in this vein that l initially responded to the news of the Bangladesh Rifles (border patrol) mutiny, coming as it did so soon after a successfully run election in December 2008 had brought back a civilian government with a huge mandate for change in the country.

As it turned out, this was a mutiny amongst the ranks against their officers over the terms and conditions of their employment, such as food rations and the opportunity to take UN assignments abroad as the army officers do. Nevertheless, the news is grim, with mass graves of officers and often their family members as well found in the heart of Dhaka, more bodies found in the sewerage system and many still missing. The mutiny also reflects the general alienation of public servants, though the lot of the Bangladesh Rifles living in a posh part of Dhaka is considerably better than that of civil servants, who have not risen up with them – nor, come to that, have other sections of the armed forces in the army and the navy. Far from being “underfunded”, as is claimed in the Guardian editorial of 2 March, the military has the best take of public resources in Bangladesh, as is the case in many other Asian countries. So to all intents and purposes it is a very localised conflict between the Bangladesh Rifles rank and file and the army officers. That has still has not stopped rumours going around that the mutiny could be party-political or even Islamist-inspired.

These past few days have been a real test for the civilian government led by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League. Thankfully the army command has come out in support of the government, though differences exist over the promised amnesty for surrender and consideration of better terms and conditions of employment, while the army will push for the mutineers to be court marshalled – and we all know what the legal penalty for mutiny can be, though of course civilian courts too can impose the death sentence. While conflicts emerge around who has jurisdiction over the mutineers, it will all hang in the balance for a while yet, but a return to the barracks is the least we can expect.

At Mayor’s Question Time at City Hall yesterday I questioned Boris Johnson on the issue of air quality and its impact on public health, which is a major issue for Londoners and one that the Mayor has a clear responsibility to consider in his decision making.

Due to poor air quality in the capital we have more than 1,000 accelerated deaths annually – almost five times the number of fatalities resulting from road accidents in London – and 1,000 extra respiratory hospital admissions. At the last meeting of the London Assembly’s Environment Committee we heard from Dr Frank Kelly of King’s College that poor air quality may also be responsible for a reduction of 17 per cent in some children’s lung growth by the time they hit their teens.

In reply to my question, Boris listed his discussions with central government and the PM about the development of an electric car infrastructure in London and with Mandy at BERR about subsidy schemes for replacing the oldest and most polluting light goods vehicles – which in all likelihood will take him beyond even the extended deadline for compliance with the EU air quality directive. While Boris busies himself with grand schemes like these, which will have an impact only in the longer term, he fails to address the immediate problem that London has the worst air pollution in the UK and among the worst in Europe.

In the here and now, Boris’s decision to halt the further rollout of the Low Emission Zone to cover light goods vehicles tells us all we need to know about his concerns about air quality and its implications for Londoners’ health. It was hardly surprising that he announced this shameful decision on the day that the chaos caused by the heaviest snowstorm for many years dominated the media, in an evident attempt to bury the news in the snow.