Mayor joins Clinton's climate group

Ken Livingstone has joined former US president Bill Clinton in launching a new initiative aimed at tackling climate change.

The mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco were also at the launch of the Clinton climate initiative (CCI) which aims to foster co-operation between major urban centres.

The large cities climate leadership group, chaired by the London mayor, comprises 22 of the largest cities in the world which have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Last October, London convened a meeting of large cities to discuss the issue of global warming.

Speaking at the launch of the new initiative on Tuesday, Livingstone said: "There is no bigger task for humanity than to avert catastrophic climate change.

"The world's largest cities can have a major impact on this. Already they are at the centre of developing the technologies and innovative new practices that provide hope that we can radically reduce carbon emissions.

"I am delighted to be able to enter into this new partnership to rapidly accelerate cities' response to global warming. Our aim is simple - to change the world."

The Clinton climate initiative will assist the large cities in the group in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy efficiency.

It will adopt the same business-oriented approach that has been used in other Clinton Foundation initiatives such as its work in the fight against HIV/Aids.

Clinton said: "The fate of the planet that our children and grandchildren will inherit is in our hands, and it is our responsibility to do something about this crisis.

"The partnership between my foundation and the large cities climate leadership group will take practical and, most importantly, measurable steps toward helping to slow down global warming, and by taking this approach I think we can make a big difference."

The CCI will assist the large cities group by creating a purchasing consortium to lower the prices of energy saving products and accelerate the development of energy saving and greenhouse gas reducing technologies and products.

It also aims to bring together the best experts in the world to provide technical assistance to cities to develop and implement plans that will result in greater energy efficiency and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

And it will create common measurement tools and communications systems that will allow cities to measure the effectiveness of the program in reducing these emissions and to share best practice.

The London Green Party welcomed the announcement. Assembly member Darren Johnson said national governments' progress on tackling climate change has been "agonisingly slow".

"Hopefully, by bringing together some of the world's biggest cities we will start to see much faster progress," said Johnson.