By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
Aside from participating in the C40 Large Cities Climate Change Summit, Mayor of London Boris Johnson has had another mission to accomplish: to observe Seoul 20 years after staging the Summer Olympics in 1988.
Touring the Seoul Olympic grounds and nearby facilities, he had this to say: ``After 20 yeas, the legacy of the Games is fantastic.''
In a news conference Monday at the Shilla Hotel where the summit is underway, Johnson said, ``All these things inspired me with hope that we can produce the same sort of legacy in London.''
London is to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
He went on mentioning specifics of his favorites, ``I single out the village that is a major achievement. You've been able to sell the apartments in advance with the proceeds for the benefit for the park. You have a museum, a world-class sporting venue and a green park with woods and beautiful waterside features. We particularly congratulate you on that.''
Johnson is an iconic figure in Britain as a green mayor. Coming from a journalist background, the mayor last May was elected with campaigns pledged to making London greener.
He pledged to plant trees, some of which were actually being done this month. As a cyclist, he often appears in public riding a bicycle, a contributing factor to promoting the green image.
Johnson laid out London's plan for making the London Olympics the greenest sports event ever.
By 2012, Johnson said, the city will have the newest green park in Europe. It will also have a ``Super Highway,'' a bike track at the Olympic sites that will allow spectators to move from one facility to another via bicycle, he said.
From the Seoul summit, Johnson hoped to ``get some serious results.''
``It is important to agree on specific measures,'' he said.
For the mayor, two things are the most serious, and therefore the most urgent to solve: CO2 emissions from buildings in the city and vehicles.
The summit is a discussion venue among city mayors around the world.
Meeting for the third time, this year in Seoul, the mayors face a double challenge as the global economic recession has hit efforts to fight climate change around the world hard. Johnson is attending the conference as honorary deputy chairman.