‘I am the first green mayor of London,” Sadiq Khan proclaimed last year during the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. The Labour party mayor has built a reputation for tackling air pollution. In 2019, he introduced ultra-low emission zones in the nation’s capital. New cycle infrastructure has appeared throughout the city, alongside cycling training courses, and London is brimming with electric buses. It’s no surprise that since 2016, the year Khan was elected, air pollution in London has plunged dramatically.
So it makes little sense that Khan has refused to reverse the Silvertown tunnel. The 1.4km twin-bore road tunnel under the Thames is due for completion in 2025 and will connect the boroughs of Greenwich and Newham. The project is a Johnson mayoral-era solution to the severe delays at the Blackwall tunnel that links Greenwich to Tower Hamlets. TfL claims that the Silvertown tunnel will “help reduce the environmental impact of traffic congestion on some of London’s most polluted roads”, but Greenwich and Newham locals argue that it will do the exact opposite, bringing more pollution to the area.
