Great to attend the Pollinating London Together Annual General Meeting at Drapers’ Hall. My remarks went as follows:
Drapers’ Hall, 18:00, Tuesday, 2 April 2024, The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is my pleasure to join you this evening for the Pollinating London Together annual meeting. For those who don’t know me, I’m Michael Mainelli, the 695th – but first American-born – Lord Mayor of the City of London; a place I like to refer to as the world’s oldest democratic workers’ and residents’ cooperative.
I’ve lived in London for forty years but I’m still discovering new things. As a teenager I worked in a family bee business, but I’ve only just found out there’s a difference between the bees we have in America and the ones here in the UK. A UK bee carries pollen. A US bee carries data.
So, hands up, I admit it, I’m also fond of a good dad joke. What’s a bee’s favourite hairstyle? A buzz cut. How about their favourite book? The Great Gats-bee. OK, I’ll stop droning on and get to the important bits.
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how valuable the work you do to support pollinators and their habitats is. But it has been an absolute pleasure to work with Pollinating London Together on various strands of my “Connect To Prosper” theme, on a shared journey to a greener, brighter future.
As many of you know, “Connect To Prosper” seeks to leverage the incredible power of the City’s unique connections to tackle huge global challenges, the most important of which is combatting climate change and biodiversity loss.
The City of London Corporation has been playing its part for years now. We were the first government body to introduce a clean air act in 1953. And we’re on track to reach net zero in our own operations by 2027 while supporting net zero for the whole Square Mile by 2040 and helping the City unlock its full potential as a one-stop-shop for sustainable finance.
In November, the Policy Chairman, Chris Hayward, and I represented the City at COP28 in Dubai. On June 4th we’ll host the annual Net Zero Delivery Summit, where we’ll take stock of progress made at the mid-way point between Dubai and Baku.
Meanwhile, last month I was pleased to host the launch of the City carbon credit cancellation service, C4S, alongside the Livery Climate Action Group. Throughout the year we’re holding “Coffee Colloquies” where thought-leaders can discuss the big issues of the day, and you might be interested in the Royal Society’s colloquy on “Monitoring Nature” on April 16th.
We’re also shining a spotlight on the Square Mile’s various “Knowledge Miles” with an online lecture series delivered by City organisations, livery companies and educational institutions. And I want to express my utmost thanks to Pollinating London Together for the update on your work on February 15th and lecture on greenspaces alongside the Gardeners on March 26th.
As well as being a leading centre for financial and professional services, the City is also a global hub for innovation. To demonstrate this, we recently launched our “Connect To Prosper” experiment series and I’m so pleased that one of our experiments is a pollinator count with Pollinating London Together on July 1st.
Everyone who lives or works in the City has a role to play in pollinator conservation, and the City of London Corporation takes that very seriously. As you know, we have hosted two carefully maintained beehives at Mansion House for many years. However, recognising that the City’s high number of managed honeybees places pressures on wild pollinators, we have also invested in a roof garden and better window box planting to provide more forage.
More widely, we’re encouraging all City businesses to green their premises and create habitat for pollinators where they can. And we’re working to improve the urban environment for pollinators with new plantings in public spaces and the creation of nesting habitats for wild bees.
Ladies and Gentlemen – I started this year with an ambition to encourage more cooperation among key City organisations. And Pollinating London Together is the group I find myself holding up as a great example of that pan-City working. Thank you, once more, for all you do for the City and our precious planet!
I’ll leave you with a little tale you might appreciate. A man walks into a dentist’s surgery and says: “Help! I think I’m a moth!” “Then you need a psychiatrist, ” the dentist replies. “I am seeing a psychiatrist,” says the man. “What are you doing here then?” the dentist asks. “Well,” the man replies, “your light was on.”
Thank you.