LCCI Respond to the London Mayor's speech at COP26

Friday 12 November 2021

Responding to the Mayor of London's speech at COP26, Richard Burge, Chief Executive of London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said:

“We wholeheartedly agree with the Mayor of London’s praise of cities as nimble, progressive and agile during his speech at COP26 this afternoon and share his ambitions to make London the greenest city in the world. However, we question his attack on national governments at a summit that is supposed to bring people together and be built upon collaboration.

"It is true that cities do have an inherent agility when compared to national governments, but a narrative centred on blame is unhelpful. Ultimately, city leaders need to generate the necessary support from their national governments for the autonomy to make city-level changes that will help deliver on net-zero ambitions sooner. We would encourage more co-operation between national and municipal governments where the latter is granted the opportunity and autonomy to unleash their agility and innovation to propel whole countries towards achieving net-zero.”

ENDS