Climate crisis is an issue of racial injustice, says Khan

The global climate crisis is a matter of racial injustice, the mayor of London has warned, as new research reveals that black, Asian and minority ethnic communities are most at risk of being affected by harmful emissions in the capital. Areas of London with minority ethnic populations of more than 50 per cent are more likely to face the highest climate risk in London, including flooding, exposure to toxic air, heat risk and limited access to green space, analysis from City Hall shows.

- NADINE WHITE

Last year, London saw the impact of the climate emergency first-hand, with soaring temperatures and flash floods in the capital. Experts caution that if the necessary action is not taken, and extreme temperatures and flooding continue to get worse, a quarter of London’s railway stations, one in five schools, nearly half of London’s hospitals and hundreds of thousands of homes and workplaces will be at risk of flooding in the future.

During an interview with The Independent, the mayor acknowledged that, all too often, headlines and national discussions around climate change fail to resonate with the average person, because of a lack of accessible information about how the average person is affected.

“That’s why we’ve brought together a number of different pieces of research and analysis, because it’s very complicated – and when you look at this stuff, a number of stark things jump out at you,” he said, adding that the climate crisis is already having a significant impact on countries with a majority black and Asian population, some of which have strong links to London’s diaspora communities. These include Bangladesh, China, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka.