Let’s have a look at his pledges on the environment. (Bear in mind I’ve dashed this out in my lunchbreak so it’s not going to be as rigorous as a proper blog post.)

1. Protect And Preserve Open Spaces

- Use the Mayor’s powers to protect the green belt and protect against development on gardens.

I doubt that many planning applications on gardens would be big enough to reach the Mayor. It’s not a bad idea per se but it’s clear that his motivation is appealing to - almost literally! - NIMBYism.

- Invest £6 million in making our open spaces cleaner and safer.

God only knows what that’s supposed to mean, but it’s clearly got nothing to do with tackling climate change, and far more to do with adding to the scaremongering his campaign can’t stop spreading. Open spaces seem pretty safe to me already, thanks.

- Invest in 10,000 street trees to improve the local neighbourhoods that need them most.

A pathetic pledge to a tiny, insignificant fraction of the trees than are already being planted.

2. Make It Easier To Recycle And Reduce Waste

- Promote innovative new schemes that pay Londoners to recycle.

I’ve covered why this is an awful idea elsewhere. And don’t forget the Mayor has no direct power over recycling anyway.

- Work closely with boroughs to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill, and support a ban on plastic bags.

The national government is staggering (somewhat pathetically) towards a plastic bag ban anyway - goodness knows what the Mayor could do to enhance this.

3. Make Transport More Sustainable

- Oppose the third runway at Heathrow and mixed mode operation.

…but support the building of an entirely new airport in the Thames Estuary, where the current Mayor supports the building instead of a nature reserve! This is one of the most cynical bits of electioneering in Boris’s manifesto: trying to pretend he opposes Heathrow expansion for environmental reasons, so attempting to hoover up votes around Heathrow from people on the London electoral register; while actually supporting even more airport expansion, negating any environmental benefit of his Heathrow policy, in an area where residents are not eligible to vote (and where he doesn’t have any power to propose an airport anyway!). Pathetic.

- Promote hybrid buses and get traffic moving more smoothly to reduce congestion and so reduce emissions.

I thought he was slagging off Ken’s hybrid bus plans on Newsnight, saying his ridiculous Routemaster plan would use the money from that instead. And if traffic starts to move ‘more smoothly’, the people put off using the roads by the congestion will return to the roads and so the congestion will come back too, but with added pollution from the increased number of vehicles on the roads. That’s why supply-side measures in managing road use never work.

- Make London a genuinely cycle-friendly city to promote modal shift.

Funded how? Ken’s ‘cycle motorways’ plan would be funded from the revenue from the £25 CO2 charge, which Boris opposes.

4. Help Tackle Climate Change

- Work to help cut London’s carbon emissions by 60% from their 1990 levels by 2025, through promoting greater energy efficiency and cutting congestion.

“Work to help”? In other words, “cross fingers and hope to”. Boris opposes and/or has no interest in pursuing most of the measures necessary to reach this target. Elect Boris and this target won’t be met - that’s the simple, direct relationship.

- Work with the boroughs to encourage Londoners to install insulation in return for Council Tax rebates.

Oh yes, because councils have loads of money sloshing about just waiting to be paid back to residents. Installing insulation pays for itself, and there are already schemes to subsidise it anyway.

- Champion innovation through an annual Mayor’s prize of £20,000 for the best new ideas for low carbon technology from London’s students.

Typical Boris: why come up with a plan or innovate yourself, or consult renowned environmental experts, when you can dangle a wad of money in front of some paupers to try to get them to do all the work for you on the cheap, and appear generous at the same time. A hollow gesture.

Environmentalists have no political axe to grind - it’s in their interest to try to keep in with all parties as they will want influence on whoever is in power. So the fact that they are increasingly lining up to express horror at the thought of Mayor Boris speaks volumes about how poor his environmental credentials really are. So present as many of his campaign’s ill-thought-through outpourings as you like in the interests of ‘balance’: the scales are heavily weighted against him.

As you well know, I’m not here to provide arguments for voting for Ken: if you want those, try his own web site.

(I don’t care either way about ID cards and I don’t think the Mayor has any powers in that area anyway.)

(and don’t mention ID cards ;-))