ndrew Simms | The "Green New Deal"
http://www.truthout.org/article/the-green-new-deal-climate-crisis-roosevelt-revisited
Here's a proposal from the United Kingdom that we in the U.S. need to learn
from:
Andrew Simms, BBC News: "Now, a unique new group of specialists in finance,
energy and the environment is arguing for a Green New Deal that will deliver
a comprehensive solution to the triple crunches of the credit crisis, high
energy prices and climate change."
Climate Crisis: Roosevelt Revisited
Monday 21 July 2008
ยป
by: Andrew Simms, BBC News
Using United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal" as a
model, a unique group of specialists in finance, energy and the environment
are arguing for a Green New Deal that will be a comprehensive solution to
the credit crisis, high energy prices and climate change. (Photo: Courtesy
Gordon Skene Sound Collection /Globe Photos, Inc.)
We have just 100 months to act to prevent dangerous climate change, says
Andrew Simms. In this week's Green Room, he outlines plans for a "Green New
Deal" that could sort out the pressing problems we have with climate, energy
and the financial system.
"Too important to fail" is the message heard repeatedly from governments
stepping in and spending billions to prop up failing financial markets.
But all the time, another system - an atmosphere convivial to human
civilisation, that really is too important to fail - is being wrecked by
political complacency and unrealistic economics.
Now, a unique new group of specialists in finance, energy and the
environment are arguing for a Green New Deal that will deliver a
comprehensive solution to the triple crunches of the credit crisis, high
energy prices and climate change.
But time is short, very short.
New and cautious calculations by the New Economics Foundation's (NEF)
climate change programme suggest that we may have as little as 100 months
starting from August 2008 to avert uncontrollable global warming.
Nothing short of the rapid and wide-scale re-engineering of the economy
will be sufficient. Radical change, though, is needed anyway because of the
credit and energy crises; the latter driven significantly by the imminent
peak and decline of global oil production.
No simple techno-fix exists that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions
fast or far enough to solve the problem.
The answers are going to be economic, political and behavioural. Many
countries, not just the UK, are going to need to learn the art of rapid
transition.
Lessons From History
The Green New Deal group formed in the summer of 2007 against this
background, but before the current full-blown economic crisis.
It took inspiration from President Roosevelt's response to the 1929 Wall
Street financial crash.
Back then, his plan was divided into an initial 100 days spent rapidly
passing measures on poverty relief, financial reform and economic recovery,
including the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
A later wave of law-making sought to deliver broader redistribution of
power and resources.
Our modernised Green New Deal, published on the 75th anniversary of
Roosevelt's plan, is tailored to the threats and opportunities of today, but
also designed to happen in two waves.
First, we outline a structural transformation of the regulation of the
financial system, including major changes to taxation systems.
Secondly, we call for a sustained programme to invest in, and deploy,
energy conservation and renewable energies, coupled with effective demand
management.
In place of Roosevelt's politically clever 100 day programme - in which
all of his measures were passed - we find ourselves with the very real
timeframe of 100 months, imposed by the unthinkable prospect of runaway
climate change.
The outcomes of our plan, though, are not to be feared. They will create
countless green collar jobs, introduce greater economic stability, bring
huge benefits to the real economy and establish prudent environmental
policy.
Three interlocking elements make up the Green New Deal:
Stabilising the Financial System: A financial system built on
speculation and the reckless accumulation of debt needs saving from itself
with a thorough overhaul of regulation. This would include breaking up
discredited financial institutions that have only survived through the
injection of vast sums of public money.
Instead of institutions that are "too big to fail", we need institutions
that are small enough to fail without creating problems for depositors and
the wider public.
We also need to minimise corporate tax evasion by clamping down on tax
havens and obfuscatory corporate financial reporting.
Raise the Resources to Invest in Change: The Green New Deal needs
resourcing. As part of the financial reform described above, cheaper money
is needed to invest in the environmental transformation of our energy,
transport and building infrastructure.
In parallel, to prevent inflation, we want to see much tighter
regulation of the wider financial environment.
The UK and the global economies are entering uncharted waters, and the
weather forecast is not just bad, but appalling
There are plenty of other ways of urgently freeing-up necessary finance.
As just one part of a wide-ranging package of financial innovations, the
Deal calls for the establishment of an Oil Legacy Fund, similar to a highly
successful Norwegian government initiative, paid for by a windfall tax on
the profits of oil and gas companies.
More realistic fossil fuel prices, raised to include their cost to the
environment, will generate further revenue and create economic incentives
that drive efficiency and bring alternative fuels to market.
Importantly, this multiple approach will help pay for the safety nets
needed for those vulnerable to higher food and fuel prices.
Environmental Transformation: The end game of the Green New Deal is to
bring about a low-carbon, high well-being economy.
There are numerous benefits in shifting to a more efficient,
decentralised energy system that uses a wide range of renewable energy
technologies applied at different scales, and in which demand is actively
managed.
With the right economic incentives, the foundations of a new energy
system could be laid tomorrow.
Increasing our energy security and independence by making every building
a power station and efficiency centre will create a "carbon army" of
countless green collar workers.
But that is only the beginning; re-engineering our food and transport
systems would cut out unnecessary fossil-fuel use and increase our
resilience and security.
Rethinking Reality
The project requires vision, boldness and a commitment to learning the
art of rapid transition.
The Green New Deal calls on us to learn from history - not just what
Roosevelt achieved from 1933 onwards, but from how Britain prepared for,
fought and recovered from the Second World War.
Back then, in a few short years, we successfully re-tooled the economy
for a new purpose, and achieved massive, supportive changes in behaviour.
Also, many of those initiatives had unanticipated benefits for health
and well-being, such as the growth of urban gardening.
More recently, there were the responses to the oil crises of the 1970s,
and Cuba's astonishing avoidance of widespread starvation post-Cold War,
when it lost access to affordable oil supplies and was placed in near total
economic isolation.
Reckless and ultimately expensive lending, coupled with speculation, has
brought the financial system to the brink of collapse and has funded
environmentally damaging over-consumption.
That has also brought that more important system - the climate -
literally to the edge.
Politicians' faith in markets' ability to manage themselves now looks
childishly naive.
Failure Not an Option
Our challenge now is to make available the low-cost capital needed to
fund the UK's green economic shift whilst having controls in place to
prevent inflation.
To deliver the Green New Deal, we need a new alliance between
environmentalists, industry, agriculture, government and the unions to put
the interests of the real economy ahead of those of footloose finance.
As an even earlier US President, Thomas Jefferson, said: "I sincerely
believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies,
and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the
name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a larger scale."
The UK and the global economies are entering uncharted waters, and the
weather forecast is not just bad, but appalling.
The triple crisis of credit collapse, oil prices and climate change is
conjuring a perfect storm. Instead of desperate baling out, and in the
absence of a joined-up plan from government, the Green New Deal is the first
attempt to outline a comprehensive plan and a new course to navigate each
obstacle in our path.
If successful, we also believe that emerging on the other side of the
storm, we will find the world to be a better place. It is, at the very
least, too important to fail.
--------
Andrew Simms is policy director of the New Economics Foundation (NEF), a
founder member of the Green New Deal Group, and co-author of its report: A
Green New Deal. The report can be downloaded from NEF's web site.
_______________________________________________
For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please
visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/
RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for:
[email protected]
http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins
free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
