08:52, February 29, 2008
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, announced on Thursday the start of a groundbreaking program to cut carbon emissions from London's buildings by 25 percent.

World leading energy service companies Dalkia and Honeywell were selected to help cut energy use in Greater London Authority buildings.

The move made London the first city in the world to have completed the municipal tender process and appointed a company following a deal developed by the Clinton Climate Initiative for the C40 group of cities at the New York Large Cities Climate Summit in May 2007.

"Today marks the start of the transformation of London's buildings from the major source of carbon emissions in the city, to a beacon of modern, low-carbon efficiency," Livingstone said.

He said that one million tons of carbon emissions, and millions of pounds, could be saved each year if London's municipal buildings and schools, universities and hospitals were to do this.

The Mayor will also be working with the Clinton Climate Initiative to sign up private sector businesses to green their buildings.

Unlike traditional public building improvement programs, under the C40 scheme a whole group of buildings are offered up for retrofitting in one go, allowing energy services companies to achieve economies of scale and invest in more expensive, long-term infrastructure, such as decentralized energy supply, out of the savings from cheaper, quicker measures.

Dalkia and Honeywell have a proven track record in the field of energy efficiency measures and will provide a range of services in order to achieve a 25 percent cut in emissions from across 42 of London's public buildings.

Thursday's announcement is the latest initiative to come out of the Mayor's London Climate Change Action Plan, which also includes the recently announced CO2 charge on gas-guzzling cars, a record investment to transform cycling and walking, a Green Homes Advice Service, and the Green 500 low-carbon business program.

Source: Xinhua