Megacity mayors vow to ‘clean toxic air’

FROM penalising cars to planting trees, dozens of mayors from every continent pledged cleaner air yesterday in a bid to improve urban health and tackle climate change.

More than 90% of people breathe dirty air, causing death and disease, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The mayors from the world’s “megacities” were in Copenhagen, Denmark, for a three-day C40 World Mayors Summit looking at ways to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

“This dirty air kills seven million people a year, largely in cities, and contributes to the global climate emergency,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the summit.

Leaders of more than 90 cities, representing more than 700 million people and a quarter of the global economy, were meeting to push for climate action.

As activists from Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg to the Extinction Rebellion protest movement take an increasingly visible stand on climate change, officialdom is catching up.

Among the mayoral initiatives were incentives to “do good” – cheap bus fares and penalties for doing harm such as spewing excess emissions – as cities test tactics to coax change.

From Los Angeles to Tokyo, 35 cities committed yesterday to meet WHO minimum air quality levels by 2030 – something they said could save 40000 lives a year.

“Toxic air pollution is a global crisis, and as mayors, it is our fundamental responsibility to protect the public,” said London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

The mayors’ summit came days after climate-change protesters took to the streets from Austria to New Zealand pledging two weeks of peaceful, civil disobedience.

Delegates at the summit opening on Wednesday were met by demonstrators from local group Klima Aktion DK, armed with fake binoculars made from toilet rolls.

“Our message to the C40 mayors is: The people are watching you! We want to see action!” the group wrote its Facebook page.