In 2007, Larry Elliott met a friend to discuss the financial crisis. Over the course of the evening, and several drinks, they cooked up the Green New Deal – a plan to deal with the effects of the economic crisis and the threat of climate change. They formed the Green New Deal Group and, though Gordon Brown and Barack Obama briefly flirted with the idea, it did not progress much further.

In this Guardian podcast Green New Deal Group member Larry Elliott describes the origins of the Green New Deal
In this Guardian podcast Green New Deal Group member Larry Elliott describes the origins of the Green New Deal

Presented by India Rakusen with Larry Elliott and Sally Weale, produced by Joshua KellyLeah Green and Axel Kacoutié; executive producers Nicole Jackson and Phil Maynard

But in 2018, the youngest US congresswoman in history, the Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, picked it up and the idea has been gaining traction ever since. Ocasio-Cortez’s plan mixes old and new. She wants a living-wage job for anyone who wants one; universal healthcare; and basic income programmes as part of a “detailed national, industrial, economic mobilisation plan” that would ensure the US is powered by 100% renewable electricity, and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing, agriculture and other industries.

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