倫敦年奧運前打造“最環保”城市

Mayor Boris Johnson Monday outlined plans to make London "the cleanest, greenest city on Earth" by the 2012 Olympics and called for commitments from other world cities at a climate change conference.

Leaders of the world's 40 largest cities are meeting in Seoul this week for a summit on combating global warming - the third to be held since 2005.

"What we should do in Seoul is agree that we will stop the endless addiction of mankind to the internal combustion engine," said Johnson.

He told a press conference the world's cities consume 75 percent of its energy and produce 80 percent of the emissions which cause climate change.

"The problem of our planet is an urban problem," Johnson said, calling for "serious results" in Seoul.

He said the British capital wants to use the Olympics "to drive the greening and the improvement of our city" and noted that London is committed to reduce carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2025.

Johnson said the key measure was addressing the problems relating to domestic and commercial buildings, which accounted for 70 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in London.

This involved retrofitting - installing lagging - in large numbers of public buildings.

Johnson proclaimed himself a "passionate cyclist" and said he would push ahead with cycle super-highways around London.

London's air quality problem, he said, was caused by vehicle emissions from 8,300 antiquated diesel buses, which could be replaced by low-carbon vehicles.

There were also 32,000 taxis running on diesel fuel, which could be replaced by electric vehicles.

Johnson said there would be a substantial program in the next few years to produce a "cleaner, greener" bus for his city. "The age of the diesel-emitting bus has got to be over in London."

倫敦市長鮑里斯•約翰遜在本週一出席一次氣候變化會議時稱，倫敦計劃在2012年舉辦奧運會前成爲“全球最清潔最環保城市”，並呼籲其他各國城市共同參與。

本週，全球40個大城市的市長齊聚首爾，參加自2005年首次舉辦以來的第三屆抵制全球變暖的峯會。

約翰遜說：“在此次首爾會議上，我們應同意終止人類無止境的‘內燃機上癮症’。”

他在一次新聞發佈會上稱，全世界城市消耗的能源佔全球總消耗量的75%，所排放的導致氣候變化的廢氣則佔到80%。

約翰遜說：“地球的問題其實是城市造成的。”他呼籲此次首爾會議取得“重要成果。”

他表示，倫敦願以奧運會爲契機，“提升城市環保水平”，並特別指出倫敦承諾在2025年之前將碳排放量減少60%。

約翰遜稱將採取重要措施解決住宅和商業建築有關問題，這兩類建築的二氧化碳排放量佔倫敦市總排放量的70%。

這包括對大量公共建築進行翻修，並加裝隔熱層。

約翰遜聲稱自己是位“熱情的自行車運動者”，並稱他將推動建設環倫敦“自行車高速公路”。

他表示，倫敦的空氣質量問題是由8300輛破舊的柴油公交車排放廢氣造成的，這些車可以用低碳排放的交通工具替代。

此外，倫敦還有32000輛使用柴油的出租車，可以用電動車輛取而代之。

約翰遜稱，未來幾年將實施一項大規模計劃，生產“更清潔、更環保”的公交車。他說：“倫敦市使用柴油公交車的時代就要結束了。”

Vocabulary:

internal combustion engine：內燃機

retrofit：to install, fit, or adapt (a device or system) for use with something older（更新，式樣翻新）

push ahead with：推動，推進