Now here’s something interesting! An actual use of the term ” Green New Deal,” which has been knocking around for years now, and in the title of a report written by group of veteran British climate and social justice campaigners that ought to know what they’re talking about.
The precise definition of the “triple crunch” here is a bit too topical for our tastes (we’re not sure that the credit crisis deserve equal billing with climate change) but this is a pretty small point. The main claim here is that “These three overlapping events threaten to develop into a perfect storm, the like of which has not been seen since the Great Depression,” and it’s well worth considering, particularly since it may be right. And because, if it is, the stakes will be extremely high.
The Green New Deal, in this formulation,
… entails re-regulating finance and taxation plus a huge transformational programme aimed at substantially reducing the use of fossil fuels and in the process tackling the unemployment and decline in demand caused by the credit crunch. It involves policies and novel funding mechanisms that will reduce emissions contributing to climate change and allow us to cope better with the coming energy shortages caused by peak oil.
More precisely, the ” Green New Deal”
… consists of two main strands. First, it outlines a structural transformation of the regulation of national and international financial systems, and major changes to taxation systems. And, second, it calls for a sustained programme to invest in and deploy energy conservation and renewable energies, coupled with effective demand management.
We don’t agree with every nuance , but this report, called by its authors “the first attempt to address the nature of broader financial and monetary reform necessary to create the investment framework needed for the energy transition to avert dangerous climate change,” is certainly worth reading.