Sadiq Khan’s first book is ostensibly structured as a self-help title in the vein of, say, Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It tackles his commitment to “effective climate action” and presents obstacles – fatalism, apathy, cynicism, deprioritisation, hostility, cost and gridlock – and then addresses how to overcome them. But it is also a memoir in which each one of the seven chapters concerns a new episode in the story of Khan’s political career, framed around the personal awakening that took place in the aftermath of his 2015 selection as Labour’s candidate for London mayor.
Aged 43, he was unexpectedly diagnosed with asthma, which his GP explains has become an increasingly common consequence of poor air quality in the city. He is further inspired by the campaigning of activist Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, whose daughter, Ella, died of asthma aged nine in 2013 because of exposure to south-east London’s toxic air. He recognises connections between air pollution, global heating, public health and racial inequality. Then, in 2016, when he is challenged – in a campaign seen by many as explicitly racist – by the Conservative party’s environmental champion, Zac Goldsmith, he comes out on top and an alternative approach to environmental action starts to form that aligns itself with the principles of social justice. This informs Khan’s approach to cleaning London’s air, protecting the city’s most vulnerable communities from the worst carbon emissions and ordinary Londoners from the harshest economic costs of change.
