Agenda item

City Corporation participation at COP26

Deputy John Scott asked a question of the Chair of the Policy and Resources Committee concerning the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, seeking confirmation as to the City Corporation’s participation in view of its high profile among local authorities in promoting a green agenda.

Responding, the Chair noted the global importance of COP26, which represented a crucial opportunity to agree ambitious targets to check global warming.  The City of London Corporation, in partnership with the Green Finance Institute (GFI), would be looking to take a proactive role at this event, mobilising private finance to support Net Zero and provide a strong platform for the Financial and Professional Services industry, and working very closely with Mark Carney (the UN climate finance envoy), Her Majesty’s Government, and business stakeholders from all the key City sectors. 

The Corporation was also building on last year’s highly successful Green Horizon Summit and would be launching a Green Horizon Summit at COP26 (GHS@COP26). This would be an ambitious hybrid event over 5-7 days which would be held at and alongside COP26, with a link back to Mansion House and Guildhall and also virtual connections to other global financial centres. This would aim to touch on the big questions facing sustainable finance, key sectors across Financial and Professional Services, and the main themes of COP. 

In the lead-up to COP26, the Corporation would also be running a series of online business-facing events and, underpinning all its activities was the Corporation’s continuing work on green finance, ESG, and its own Climate Action Strategy. In parallel, a Green Horizon Steering Board would be established, chaired by the Lord Mayor with myself as vice-chair, to provide strategic direction to the Green Horizon programme up to and beyond COP26, working with the GFI, Government and key business partners.  

Deputy John Scott asked a supplementary question concerning “Pre-COP26”, an event in Milan which offered a chance for young people to express themselves on climate change, querying whether the City’s schools and academies were aware of this opportunity and would be encouraged to participate.

The Chair confirmed that the City’s family of schools and academies were indeed being made aware of the opportunities, adding that the recent Head Teacher’s Forum for all of the Family of Schools  had had a specific item on youth-led climate action and channels for engaging young people.

Additionally, as part of the GHS@COP26 programme, consideration was being given to a public-facing debate on Green Finance, at which it was intended to reserve a number of seats for pupils from City Schools.  This debate, as well as all the other content for GHS@COP26, would also be made available online for the schools and academies.

Anti-social Behaviour

Henrika Priest asked a question of the Chair of the Police Authority Board, in which she highlighted the prevalence of a group of people committing anti-social behaviour over recent months in the Stonecutter Street/Shoe Lane and Ludgate Circus areas, much of which presented a serious risk to traffic, and asked what action was being taken to address this.

Responding, the Chair touched on the priorities within the Policing Plan and the Force’s embedding a new ‘sector policing’ approach to policing the Square Mile, intended to enhance the Force’s accountability and response to local policing priorities, including roads policing, vulnerability, public disorder and anti-social behaviour.

In relation to this particular issue, he noted that in the previous four months there had been ten relevant incidents recorded for the area in question, in which two Section 34 Dispersal Orders had been implemented under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. The police had also introduced an intelligence-led operation to try and tackle the issue and the Local Policing team had also engaged with local Metropolitan Police Service boroughs in order to understand the issue, tactics, and persons involved in the anti-social behaviour.

Social media platforms had been utilised to seek to engage the groups causing the problems.

The Force had advised that the individuals causing the disturbances typically dispersed on the arrival of police and, from an operational standpoint, it would not be proportionate for police in vehicles to pursue individuals involved as it was often their objective to be chased and then engage in risky behaviour when approached by police officers. 

The Chair added that this was not simply a policing matter and a partnership meeting was taking place on the 14 May to address anti-social behaviour, at which the City of London Corporation would also be represented in its local authority capacity across various relevant functions. In the meantime, the City of London Police would continue to engage with community groups and partners to identify and address the anti-social behaviour concerns of communities in the City.

Noting the Police’s view that it would not be proportionate to pursue offenders, Alderman Ian Luder asked a supplementary question seeking clarity as to the number of serious accidents and injuries that would need to occur before the Force felt it would be appropriate to take action.

The Chair, responding, reflected on the importance of road safety as a priority and the ongoing partnership efforts to improve matters, noting that tackling these issues was not simply a policing matter. He undertook to speak further with the City Police and follow-up with the Member following the meeting.