Climate at core of London election

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - London's Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone put climate at the core of his re-election campaign on Tuesday, trying for the first time in Britain to make the environment a key electoral issue.

With Livingstone and his main opponent Conservative mayoral candidate Boris Johnson being actively backed by the leaders of their national parties, the campaign could have implications for the next general election due by mid-2010.

London is seen as the jewel in the crown for both Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron. Losing the May 1 election would be a blow for Brown, trailing badly in opinion polls after just nine months in office, but a boost for Cameron.

"Climate change and the environment is the big issue that confronts the world at the beginning of the 21st century," Livingstone said.

"Protecting and improving London's environment is both about a higher quality of life for us all today and about the kind of city we leave for our children and grandchildren."

But he faces an uphill struggle, dogged by accusations of nepotism and arrogance and with the gaffe-prone Johnson 12 points ahead in opinion polls.

While Brown's predecessor Tony Blair managed to put global warming on the international agenda in 2005, and Brown made much of the greenness of his successive budgets as Chancellor of the Exchequer, the issue has not featured in national elections.

Little in Livingstone's environmental manifesto is new after two consecutive terms in office, making it all the more difficult for his opponents to match or beat.

He has already said he aims to cut the city's climate changing carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2025, a far more ambitious target than the government's plan to achieve the same national reduction by 2050.

He pledged to go ahead with a 25 pounds a day tax on gas guzzling cars entering central London -- a policy rejected by Johnson and being legally challenged by luxury car maker Porsche -- and to extend the city's low emission zone to more vehicles.

Livingstone, who has already put London at the forefront of the C40 international group of leading cities pooling their knowledge to fight climate change, also promised to press ahead with making civic buildings more environmentally friendly.

He also vowed to oppose the planned expansion of Heathrow airport, make London more bicycle friendly, boost renewable energy -- particularly from recycling waste -- and bring in more hybrid buses.

"I have made environmental policy a central focus of all I have done as Mayor," Livingstone said.

"From the groundbreaking congestion charge, to the London Climate Change Action Plan ... and the London-wide clean air zone ... London now sets a global lead on green issues.

"If I am re-elected I will embark upon an even more ambitious program to improve London's environment and tackle climate change."

Livingstone promised a major new green space program with a huge new park around the Olympic stadium being built for the 2012 Games and a new grid of open areas to act as the city's green lungs and improve notoriously poor air quality.

(Editing by Peter Griffiths and Mary Gabriel)