London Drivers to Pay $49 USD/Day Carbon Charge

London’s mayor, Ken Livingstone is a man who knows how to grasp the nettle, to make the hard decisions and act on them. If his revolutionary £8 per day Congestion Charge for car entering central London had people aghast at his audacity, they’d better sit down before taking in his next strategy. Maybe as early as this October, owners of vehicles emitting 225 grammes of carbon dioxide per kilometre will have to fork over £25 per day to drive their behemonths through London, a city that alone “generates some 7 per cent of Britain's climate-warming carbon emissions.”

The new charge is not so much about trying to reduce congestion, but rather curbing carbon emissions by 60% before 2025. "I believe that this ground-breaking initiative will have an impact throughout the world with other cities following suit as they step up their efforts to halt the slide towards catastrophic climate change," said mayor Livingstone. Via ABC and more at Times Online.

And it comes on top of the hundreds of millions of pounds promised to improve walking and cycling conditions in London, that we reported on the other day.

Image: Eleanor Bental from the Telegraph.