This event is part of London Climate Action Week 2022 on Wednesday 29 June 1.00 PM.

Transport is the main contributor of carbon emissions in the UK and a serious driver of climate change that needs to be addressed urgently. Air pollution resulting from intense motor vehicle use also has serious impacts on people’s health and wellbeing. While the transition to electric vehicles is essential, by itself will not be sufficient to address these challenges in the timeframe needed. In addition, we all need to consider how we get about and choose walking, wheeling and public transport instead of driving more often.

There are many tools that can help achieve this. The Mayor of London has outlined plans to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to the whole of London in 2023 and to move towards smarter road user charging in the future. While expanding the ULEZ is welcome, replacing all current schemes road charging schemes in London with a per-mile charge with different rates depending on how polluting vehicles are, the level of congestion in the area and access to public transport, could be much fairer and address a number of downsides to the current system.

Part of London Climate Action Week, this event will bring experts, campaigners and Transport for London to discuss plans for smart road charging, the different options, and how they can be progressed at pace. The Mayor declared a climate emergency three and a half years ago. Road user charging would cut traffic and thus enable him to make much greater progress on tackling the emergency.

Speakers:

• Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, World Health Organization advocate for health and air quality and founder of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation
• Dr. Ashok Sinha, CEO, London Cycling Campaign
• Christina Calderato, Director of Transport Strategy and Policy, Transport for London
• Silviya Barrett, Director of Policy & Research, Campaign for Better Transport (chairing)

Speaker Bios

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah is a W.H.O. BreatheLife ambassador and founder of the Ella Roberta Foundation, based in London. Rosamund became a clean air advocate after her 9-year-old daughter, Ella, died in 2013 from asthma. Rosamund spent several years campaigning for a second coroner's inquest into Ella's death to determine whether it was linked to air pollution. In a landmark decision in December 2020, the coroner ruled it was. Ella is now the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on her death certificate. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association and was named among You Magazine's 21 Most Extraordinary Women of 2021, British Vogue's 25 Extraordinary Women of 2021, The Times' Green Power List 2021 and BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour's Power List 2020.

Dr. Ashok Sinha is the CEO of the London Cycling Campaign. After a PhD in renewable energy, a stint as a climate modeller and time as a policy analyst with Forum for the Future, Ashok moved into advocacy – serving as Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign, helping to found and lead Make Poverty History and becoming the first Director of Stop Climate Chaos (the Climate Coalition). Ashok has previously been Vice Chair of Amnesty UK and is currently the Chair of the London Sustainable Development Commission, an independent advisory body to the Mayor of London. He is also Treasurer of the Creekside Education Trust, a local conservation charity.

Christina Calderato is the Director of Transport Planning and Policy at Transport for London. For the last 10 years, she has worked across a diverse range of policy areas at TfL and led the team that developed the current Mayor’s Transport Strategy. In her current role, Christina manages teams leading on freight, road danger reduction, air quality and Healthy Streets.

Silviya Barrett joined Campaign for Better Transport - the national charity championing greener, fairer transport for all - in February 2020. She is responsible for leading the organisation's policy development, research programme and project delivery. Prior to that, Silviya was research manager at Centre for London, the capital’s dedicated think tank, where she headed up the Transport and Environment research programme and authored a number of reports on how we can achieve the shift towards sustainable transport.