The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has outlined his vision to create a thriving green economy, become more energy efficient to help cash-strapped households cut energy bills and make London a more pleasant place to live.

In the Mayor's first major speech on the environment since being elected, he set out his priorities on how London can cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2025 and make the city a 'greener', more civilised place to live and work.

Speaking at the Environment Agency's annual conference, the Mayor stressed that London was ideally positioned to lead in turning today's environmental challenges into real economic opportunities. He outlined how London's economy could benefit through 1000s of new ‘green collar' jobs, by leading in the adoption of new energy technologies and by energy savings from energy efficiency measures in homes and businesses. He emphasised that London's global competitiveness would continue to turn on London being an attractive place to live and work.

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Mr Johnson said: "Protecting our environment is one of the key issues we face today. Londoners deserve to live in an attractive, green, clean city, and we have a duty to see that we improve Londoners' overall quality of life.

"Climate change is a major threat, not least to London. But it also creates new opportunities for us as a city. 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. This is a rapidly-growing, multi-billion pound global industry and we can and must take advantage of it. It includes opportunities to save on our energy bills in difficult economic times, opportunities for new jobs in rolling out low-carbon technologies and programmes such as building installed with measures to make them more energy efficient. London’s competitiveness with other global cities turns on what London is like not just to do business, but to live, work and play. Making London a more attractive place makes common sense in lean economic times."

The Mayor will be publishing an overview of his environmental programmes, including targets and budgets, in early 2009.

(CD)