A message from Cllr Louise Krupski on #CleanAirDay
We’ve made huge progress over the past few years in our work to create a greener Lewisham and address the climate emergency, and we now have the fourth-lowest carbon emissions per capita in the country.
Air pollution is continuing to decrease in Lewisham and across the capital thanks to initiatives like the ULEZ and School Streets. However, as an inner-city borough, we know that even more needs to be done, and we’ve committed to working towards the strict WHO-backed targets to create cleaner and greener neighbourhoods for all of our residents.
We’re continuing to take bold action to improve air quality locally to meet these targets. Over the past few years, we've introduced 45 School Streets outside local primary schools, helping children to walk, cycle and scoot to school, installed over 110 bike hangars and over 100 electric vehicle charging points, introduced emissions-based parking charges, and put new anti-idling signage in place outside primary schools that are currently without School Streets - we'll be introducing more School Streets in the next school year.
We’ve also switched our electricity supply to 100% renewable energy, retrofitted council buildings and local schools, planted over 26,000 trees and secured millions of pounds in external funding to support this vital work.
We’ll soon be taking our new Air Quality Action Plan to Mayor and Cabinet, which will set out how we plan to build on this important work to ensure that air quality in our borough continues to improve.
Tackling air pollution and raising awareness of the climate emergency is a central point of our London Borough of Culture programme this year, including Dryden Goodwin’s stunning artwork Breathe: 2022, which movingly reminds us that having clean air is a matter of life or death.
There’ll also be free events and performances throughout the year as part of this programme, which will bring critical climate issues to the fore. This includes our Artists of Change initiative, which will see eco-inspired performances by Teatro Vivo and local community groups popping up in every ward across the borough, starting from next week. No matter where you live in Lewisham, there will be a performance within walking distance of your house – find out where the performances will take place.
There’ll also be two mass protest performances taking place in Mountsfield Park in Catford on Saturday afternoon at 3 and 4:30pm, where over 1,000 young people will use dance, music and spoken word to highlight the importance of fighting climate change. There’s still some tickets available for this event, so book today to make sure that you don’t miss out.
We’re proud to be working with Janet Daby, MP for Lewisham East, and the Ella Roberta Family Foundation to bring a Clean Air Fair to Catford Broadway this Saturday, from 11am until 4pm. The fair, which is free to attend, will give residents the opportunity to speak with various community groups and the Council’s Refuse and Young Mayor’s teams. Please do come down if you’re able to make it – we want to hear your thoughts and concerns, so that we can continue working together to protect our planet for future generations.
Find out more
You can find out more about the Council’s work to address the climate emergency on our website and/or by signing-up to our Greener Lewisham e-newsletter.
Get involved
There are lots of ways you can help to reduce air pollution in your neighbourhood. You can:
- sign our clean air pledge and commit to do at least one thing to improve air quality
- sign up to become an air quality champion in your child's school
- download our free Lewisham Air app to find low-pollution walking and cycling routes in the borough.
- share a climate pledge on our virtual board to help inspire others to take action
- Have your say on central government's air quality targets, which are now open for consultation.