Khan, who serves as the co-chair of C40 cities, a group of cities committed to climate action, explains his climate policy success in part by focusing much of his public message on kitchen table issues rather than climate specifically. He explained ULEZ as a health matter rather than a climate measure. (Indeed, air pollution in many cities including London is a silent killer). “People don’t talk about climate change, climate emergency, environment… What they do know is the young child’s been diagnosed with asthma,” he says. “What they do know is, in winter, bills keep on going up.”
And he has sought to connect clean energy with affordability and cost savings at a time when constituents in London and voters around the world are concerned with the rising cost of living, particularly energy. “The reason why we’re suffering a cost of living crisis is we’re relying upon fossil fuels from overseas,” he told me.
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