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Khan stated that the climate emergency was “one of the greatest global threats we face today.”
Sadiq Khan has warned that the global crisis caused by climate change is a matter racial justice.
It comes as new research shows that toxic emissions in London are most harmful to black, Asian and other ethnic minorities.
These climate risks include flooding, toxic air exposure, heat risk, and limited green space access.
The climate emergency caused temperatures to soar in London last year.
Mr Khan told the Independent: “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.
“The climate emergency is one of the biggest global threats we face today.
“On the one hand, we’re seeing racial injustice [manifest] through climate change on a global scale, but even in London, perversely, the effects of the climate crisis won’t impact everyone equally – with the poorest, minority communities and most vulnerable expected to be hit the hardest.
“Poverty, deprivation and health inequalities will reduce people’s ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from overheating and flooding incidents.
“In terms of the consequences of climate change, those who have the smallest carbon footprint and are least likely to be responsible for the crisis see the biggest consequences.
“That’s why this should be a wake-up call to people of colour in London to understand that the crisis is also a matter of racial injustice – which is, for me, another motivating factor to tackle the problem.”
In February this year, Professor Sir Chris Whitty said air pollution is “everybody’s problem and a problem at all times”.
The Government’s chief medical officer was at the meeting convened by London mayor Sadiq Khan, which also heard from environment minister Jo Churchill.
Rosamund Adoo Kissi-Debrah, a campaigner whose daughter Ella was nine years old when she died from an asthma attack nineteen years ago, was also present at this summit to discuss ways to combat the problem.
Ella’s death was later linked by a coroner to her exposure to severe air pollution from living 25 metres from the congested South Circular in Lewisham, London.
The coroner’s report, published last year, set out the need for government, the NHS and health and care professionals to do more to raise awareness of the serious health effects of air pollution.
Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debrah is calling for a public health campaign to raise awareness of the detrimental impacts of air pollution, which she described as “the poor relation to cancer”.
According to her, while air quality had improved, it was still a different picture after World Health Organisation guidelines were reviewed. Since the pandemic, an additional 100,000 people required a diagnosis of lung disease.
And she said: “The number of children who die every year from asthma has not changed since my daughter’s death.
“A quarter-of-a-million children in London have asthma, so something is going on.
“We have better doctors, we also have better medicine, so the fact that children continue to die – in 2022 no child should have to go through a similar state to what my daughter went through – I see this as a public health emergency.”
