Events

A Green New Deal

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11 December 2008

1:00pm - 2:30pm
ippr, 30-32 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA

In the summer of 2008, a proposal for a Green New Deal was put forward by a group of economists, activists, policy analysts and politicians. Their argument is that the global economy is facing a ‘triple crunch’: a combination of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, accelerating climate change and soaring energy prices underpinned by encroaching peak oil.

Drawing inspiration from the tone of President Roosevelt’s comprehensive response to the Great Depression, the group propose a modernised version, a ‘Green New Deal’ designed to power a renewables revolution, create thousands of green-collar jobs and rein in the power of the finance sector while making more low-cost capital available for pressing priorities.

At the time of its launch, the Green New Deal called for reforms far more serious than those being considered by politicians. However, the bank crises and bailouts in September and October have changed the landscape. Elements of the Green New Deal agenda are now being adopted by politicians both in the UK and the US, although debates about how such a Deal will be financed, and what the macro-economic implications are, continue to rage.

ippr is delighted that Caroline Lucas, MEP and Ann Pettifor – two members of the Green New Deal group – joined us to present and discuss the proposal.

Speakers

Caroline Lucas has been the Green Party Member of the European Parliament for the South East of England Region since 1999. She has been an active member of the Committees on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and on International Trade. Her work in the Parliament has included amending legislation to strengthen the case against GM crops, pushing for stricter controls on the regulation of chemicals, leading on a Parliament report designed to reduce the impact of aviation on climate change and calling for the precautionary principle to be a priority when it comes to environmental and human health. She was also a Member of the European Parliament’s delegation to Palestine. Her recent publications include the pamphlet Taking the Cons out of the Constitution, a report, Fuelling the Food Crisis – The Impact of Peak Oil on Food Security, and Green Alternatives to Globalisation: a manifesto co-authored with Mike Woodin. Caroline is the most prominent spokesperson for the Green Party, and frequently appears in the media.

Ann Pettifor is a fellow at the New Economics Foundation, and executive director of Advocacy International. In the 1990s she helped design and lead an international campaign, Jubilee 2000, which led to the cancellation of $100bn of debt owed by poor countries and became a template for campaigns such as the Make Poverty History campaign. Ann has lectured at the UN, the London Business School and the LSE, and served on the Board of the UN's Human Development Report on the Multilateral Development Goals (2003). Her books include The Real World Economic Outlook (Palgrave Macmillan 2003) and The Coming First World Debt Crisis (Palgrave 2006).