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 (内燃机)，”said Johnson.He said at a press conference the world's cities consume 75 percent of the world's energy and produce 80 percent of the emissions which cause climate change.“The problem of our planet is an urban problem，” Johnson said.

    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 dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2025.

    Johnson said the key measure was being taken to solve problems relating to housing and commercial buildings，which accounted for 70 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in London.This involved retrofitting (翻新)—installing lagging—in large numbers of public buildings.

    Johnson proclaimed himself a“passionate cyclist”and said he would push ahead with cycle superhighways around London.

London's air quality problem，he said，was caused by vehicle emissions from 8,300 worn and used diesel (柴油) buses，which could be replaced by low-carbon vehicles.In addition，there were also 32,000 taxis running on diesel fuel，which could be replaced by electric vehicles.

   Johnson said there would be a few programs in the next few years to produce a “cleaner，greener” bus for the city.“The age of the diesel bus has got to be over in London.”

       Mary Menth Andersen had just married Norwegian Andersen.She was looking forward to 1a new life with him.But first she had to get all of her2 across to Norway.

At the airport in Miami，when it was finally Mary's turn at the checkin counter，she 3her luggage on the baggage line.But she got the4that would crush her bubbling feeling of happiness：“You'll have to pay 103 dollars 5you want to bring those suitcases to Norway，” the man said.

       Mary had no money.Her new husband had travelled 6 her，and she had no one else to call. “I was completely 7 and tried to think which of my things I could8 without.” said Mary.

Although she explained，he showed no signs of9. “I started to cry，tears were 10 my face.Then I heard a11and friendly voice behind me saying, ‘That's OK，I'll 12her.'”

       Although this happened 20 years ago，Mary still remembers the 13that radiated from the man. “He was nicely and 14 dressed，with brown leather shoes，a cotton shirt open at the throat，” says Mary.She was15 to be able to bring her suitcases and16the stranger that he would get his money back.The man wrote his name and17on a piece of paper which18“Barack Obama” and “Kansas”．Mary carried the paper around in her wallet for years.She paid the 103  dollars back to Obama the day after she arrived in Norway.

This week we met her in the café that she runs. “It's 19 to think that the man who helped me 20 years ago is the US President，” says Mary 20.

       They seldom meet on the cricket or football fields, but the world's small island developing states are informally competing with each other to be the first to give up fossil fuels and embrace clean energy.

       52 low lying poor countries have made the energy plans, who traditionally heavily depend on imports of petrol and oil.The Caribbean island of Dominica is leading the world with plans to become carbon “negative” by 2020.The Maldives is not far behind, hoping to be carbon neutral(无温室气体排放)by 2020.Tuvalu and the Cook islands intend to generate all their electricity from renewables by 2020 and Timor­Leste, the poorest country in Asia, expects to provide solar electricity to all its 100，000 families by 2020.

        With Tonga, Samoa, Nauru, Mauritius and many other countries also volunteering to switch to solar, geothermal and wind energy, the target of the group of 52 small island developing states is a 45% cut in emissions in the next 18 years—considerably more than the world's rich countries who have pledged 12～18% cuts by 2020.

      “We are showing the world leadership，”said Dominican ambassador to the UN，Vince Henderson, at a UN development programme meeting ahead of next week's climate talks in Bonn, Germany.“This is about survival as well as economics.We are spending $220m a year importing fuel so it is in our interests.We are demanding that all countries take their responsibilities.”

      “Small island developing states can leap toward the goal of a poverty­free and prosperous future by changing their energy sectors，”said Barbados prime minister, Freundel Stuart.“We hope the international community has a unified voice, sharing our aspiration to become fully sustainable.”

          In a separate development, the world's 47 least developed countries (LDCs) will propose on Monday what they call a “bold new plan” to help speed up the UN climate talks.“Our countries cannot wait.We are already feeling the effects of climate change, but the time has come for us to be leaders in the international effort to address this global challenge.”said Pa Ousman Jarju, the chair of the LDC group.

Notes：

geothermal n ． 地热