Urgent action on air pollution - and even more on climate - is essential. But environmental policy needs to be well-designed, and well-implemented. With ULEZ, @SadiqKhan has made serious errors on both counts - and these contributed to Labour's loss in Uxbridge. 🧵1/n
@SebDance @SadiqKhan @SebDance First, policies need to align with targets. @MayorofLondon's environmental targets include reducing annual mean NOX across London to below 40 µg/m3 across the city, but also reducing PM2.5 annual mean to less than 10 µg/m3 by 2030, and a net zero CO2 target by 2030 2/n

In a recent interview for @marieclaire, @SadiqKhan claims he 'didn't want (#Breathe) to be a book where I'm not being honest'. There are 5 pages in the book justifying his biggest project as Mayor, the Silvertown Tunnel. Nearly every claim in those 5 pages is false.🧵 1/n @marieclaire @SadiqKhan First, @MayorofLondon justifies building Silvertown because 'the Blackwall Tunnel wasn't built for today's' traffic levels'. In fact, Silvertown isn't designed as, and can't be, a replacement for Blackwall. 2/n

Mayor @SadiqKhan has essentially invented a new form of climate denial; you accept that climate breakdown is happening, and there's a need for action, but you just deny that your objectively high-carbon road-building mega-project is a high carbon project at all. 🧵 1/3

https://twitter.com/John_Whitelegg/status/1554332257111908358

@SadiqKhan @NatalieHanman @SeabrookClimate @billmckibben @Phil_Goodwin99 @PhilippaNuttall @daisydunnesci @KHayhoe @KevinClimate @Sir_David_King @SebDance Even in the absurd scenario that is the only scenario that TfL will provide public & politicians modelling for, in which all future mayors decide to remove the new traffic generated by Silvertown with new tolls on Blackwall & Silvertown, operational CO2 rises substantially. 2/3

Mayor Khan's Silvertown Tunnel, if built to existing designs, will increase traffic by up to 30,000 vehicles a day, will significantly increase London's CO2 emissions, & will worsen pollution in some of London's most economically vulnerable working class minority communities. 🧵

https://twitter.com/ConstructionEnq/status/1553990224568619010

@SebDance @sabrodrigues61 @JulesPipe @ellyannab @carltonreid @NicholasHellen @GreenpeaceUK @ProfBillMcGuire @ChokedUp_UK @MumsForLungs TfL & @MayorofLondon claim that increases in traffic & pollution won't happen, because there'll be a new charge on the Blackwall & Silvertown Tunnel. However, in fact, there's no more obligation on the Mayor at the time to charge Blackwall & Silvertown than any other road. 2/n

The disastrous Silvertown Tunnel project has been pushed forwards by TfL and the Mayor's Office with a relentless campaign of lies and half-truths. Don't believe us? Check out this latest PR leaflet. In 3 short 'Background' paragraphs, there are no less than 5 straight-up lies: @MrOkereke @averil_lekau @rokhsanafiaz @josiahmortimer @simonharrisitv @BBCTomEdwards @SebDance @ellyannab @india_bourke @sianberry Lie no.1:

Silvertown isn't the 'first new river crossing to be built within the M25 in over 50 years'. There's the Millennium Bridge, the Jubilee line (3 times), the DLR (twice), the Golden Jubilee bridges, and Crossrail.

@joncstone @anne_clarke @RichardWatts01 @jtalora

The Silvertown Tunnel project is a £2.2bn scam - a bait and switch. The highest costs for this fraud will be paid by residents some of London's poorest communities, who will suffer worse air, & worse health, for decades. The winners are banks & construction companies.

🧵 1/n The tunnel has been sold to Londoners as providing a solution to the queues at the Blackwall tunnel - one that will provide better air quality, less congestion, and extensive new bus services. None of this is actually true.

2/n

This might seem just a bit absurd, & a touch Orwellian - but green-lighting the Silvertown Tunnel is - by far - the biggest decision @SadiqKhan has taken as Mayor, the one that will do the most to re-shape London & the one that will be his legacy - & define him as a politician.

https://twitter.com/oldnorthroad/status/1420088245350711298

@SadiqKhan @AdamBienkov @RichardWatts01 @LabGND @peterwalker99 @BenKentish @mrjamesob @carltonreid @piercepenniless @AaronBastani @Ed_Miliband To have used his mayoralty to commit £2.2bn of public money to a carbon-intensive mega-project that establishes him clearly on the 'business as usual' side of (in)action on the climate emergency (whatever his rhetoric in newspapers and on Twitter) can't be an easy position.

So today, @MayorofLondon wrote in the @guardian about London, and climate change risks, and in the process tried to make an environmental case for the Silvertown Tunnel, a £2.2bn new urban motorway. 1/n theguardian.com/commentisfree/… @MayorofLondon @guardian Here's the paragraph, in full. Essentially, the complaint is that too many over-height vehicles try to use the northbound tunnel, they're stopped close to the entrance, and that it takes a minute or two to re-direct them up a sliproad - which leads to queues. 2/n

Mayor @SadiqKhan still - unbelievably - trying to sell the Silvertown Tunnel, a £2.2bn new road, to the public on the grounds that it offers an 'overall improvement in air quality'. 1/n @jtalora @ellyannab guardian-series.co.uk/news/19469547.… @SadiqKhan @jtalora @ellyannab The truth is, like most big new urban roads, the £2.2bn Silvertown tunnel induces new traffic, and brings more congestion and pollution to surrounding areas. 2/n