Green Belt: our climate safety belt

Green Belt helps contain carbon hungry car-dependent urban sprawl and encourages the kind of regeneration of our cities which is good for facilitating low carbon lifestyles.   Green Belt means food can be grown close to where people live.  Existing green spaces in Green Belt are important for carbon capture and storage as well as supporting wildlife.  Green Belt also offers opportunities for woodland and other habitat creation supporting nature’s recover in the capital.

In line with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommendations, we call for ‘compact, efficient cities’ with strong Green Belt protection. There are clear environmental and social benefits to people living close to jobs and amenities with good access to excellent public transport and walking, cycling and wheeling infrastructure. Parks and green spaces need to be protected for health, recreation, sport and nature.  It’s possible to design development that supports low carbon lifestyles by using land efficiently, recycling sites in need of regeneration and using space better!

What are we doing to help protect London’s Green Belt

1. We raise awareness of why London’s Green Belt is our climate safety belt. We campaign to save Green Belt sites, working with local campaigners. We support urban design that supports lower carbon lifestyles, showing why “To save the countryside we have to save our cities”. Through our Healthy Streets programme we promote sustainable transport which is the key to building a compact low-carbon city.
2. We highlight alternatives to building on Green Belt that would be much more impactful on making affordable homes available to all.  See here for more on the options.  Our Space to Build work also shows we don’t need to build on Green Belt. There is plenty of brownfield land in London for development. We point out where there is space to build.
3. We advocate for growing the environmental and social benefits of Green Belt further through woodland and other habitat creation, nature friendly farming and other green space uses that meet local needs including through our London Tree Ring and Ten New Parks work.