Green New Deal
It’s a phrase that’s been flying around for years now, but what exactly is the Green New Deal? And where does it come from? Early use came in January 2007 from journalist Thomas Friedman, writing in The New York Times
“If you have put a windmill in your yard or some solar panels on your roof, bless your heart. But we will only green the world when we change the very nature of the electricity grid – moving it away from dirty coal or oil to clean coal and renewables. And that is a huge industrial project – much bigger than anyone has told you. Finally, like the New Deal, if we undertake the green version, it has the potential to create a whole new clean power industry to spur our economy into the 21st century.”
The Green New Deal (GND) is a now international and broad set of policy proposals aimed at restructuring society into a decarbonised economy through governmental investment in green infrastructure. It seeks not only to transform the energy sector, but integrate fairness and justice into our socioeconomic model, creating a system that provides for all. It is based on The New Deal: a series of reforms implemented by President Roosevelt from 1933-1939 to rescue American citizens from financial ruin during the Great Depression.
Roosevelt’s effective programme has thus inspired a new movement that seeks to address the interconnected ecological and economic crises of our own times, to prevent climate breakdown and provide huge numbers of “green-collar” jobs as part of a renewables revolution – thus also addressing the employment crisis plaguing many ‘developed’ and wealthy nations.
The GND plans to significantly reduce the excessive powers held by the financial sector, making more money available for public priorities. It is premised on the understanding that ecologically-minded businesses can efficiently create jobs that stimulate a healthy economy without damaging the natural world. Some estimate that the green economy may be worth a huge $25 billion per year, providing more employment opportunities than the coal, mining, logging and steel industries combined.
Although still somewhat indefinite, as each subscribed country will have different requirements, the central tenets are as follows:
1. Decarbonise Society
2. Create secure jobs
3. Transform the economy
4. Protect and restore (e.g. vital habitats and carbon sinks)
5. Promote global justice
The US GND, for example, details how climate change impacts the environment, the economy, and national security, and so presents plans for a 10-year national mobilisation. The GND is designed to restore harmony between people and planet at a time of dire need, promoting both environmental and social justice. It dictates that wealthy nations lead the way in emissions reductions, as the privilege of technological advancement alongside a longstanding culpability for the majority of carbon emissions make them both better equipped and more deeply responsible for taking charge.
The IPPC reported that humanity has around a decade left to reduce carbon emissions before climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible, affecting the whole globe, rather than historically oppressed groups alone, such as developing nations in the Southern Hemisphere, indigenous peoples, people of colour, the poor, and migrants – as is predominantly the case now.
Ecosystems must be protected and regenerated because communities—all of us—depend on nature’s survival for our own.
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