News
The need and opportunity for green recovery & why we need ecological interest rates
Is it possible to imagine a world in which the money system, and the prices placed on money, operate in such a way that they help resize the economy to fit within planetary boundaries? asks Green New Deal Group member, Andrew Simms
It would seem that Green Bonds are in vogue – but we have to get them right
Writing ahead of the Spring budget, Green New Deal Group member Richard Murphy explores what needs to happen to ensure that Green bonds contribute to a Green New Deal. As Richard sets out, if bonds are to be used to fund the recovery three things are essential. First they have to pay an above average rate of interest. Second, they have to be government guaranteed. Third, the link to investment has to be very obvious and real.
A budget for a green recovery: A special session of the APPG on the Green New Deal and the APPG on Limits to Growth
This special meeting, co-hosted by the APPG on the Green New Deal and the APPG on Limits to Growth, ahead of the budget on 3rd March explores a range of the options available to the Chancellor from government borrowing while interest rates are low, to redirecting de-facto subsidies in fossil fuels to a wealth tax and a new green home for the nation’s savings. Chaired by Caroline Lucas MP and Clive Lewis MP with evidence from: Lord Adair Turner, Chair, Energy Transitions Commission, Senior Fellow, Institute for New Economic Thinking; Miatta Fahnbulleh, Chief Executive, New Economics Foundation; Robert Palmer, Executive Director, Tax Justice UK, and; Dr Suzy Morrisey, Wellbeing Economy Alliance, New Zealand, former Policy and Engagement Lead for the Living Standards Framework, NZ Treasury
To save the planet, we need a green new deal
In a letter to the Guardian, Richard Murphy and Colin Hines make the case for a Green New Deal to overcome the social and employment effects of the Covid pandemic. They explain how a multibillion-pound programme to make all of the UK’s 30 million buildings energy efficient could be rolled out in time to act as a global exemplar for Cop26 in Glasgow this November. “Saving for the planet” is also likely to be extremely popular politically, given the growing public support for tackling the climate crisis.
A new approach is needed to fund recovery and set the agenda for COP26
Writing for the Green Alliance blog, Green New Deal Group member Colin Hines makes the case for a green recovery, and a new way to fund it: Last year was certainly the ultimate grim “Events dear boy, events” year. On the brighter side, despite Covid having drained...
UK economists survey: A green recovery could reverse inequality and meet the climate emergency
Each year the Financial Times investigates the UK’s upcoming economic prospects with a survey of economic analysts. Green New Deal Group member, and New Weather Institute co-founder Andrew Simms, shared his thoughts on prospects for the year to come. As Andrew sets out, substantial public investment could set the UK on a path compatible with meeting the 1.5°C climate target can underpin recovery, levelling-up and building back a better, greener, more equal Britain.
The Guardian view on coronavirus and the climate crisis: seize this chance
The Guardian's editorial makes the case for a transformative Green New Deal: In the early days of the pandemic, many people urged that societies could not and should not return to business as usual afterwards. Coronavirus not only confronted us with danger,...
Lessons from Lockdown: The possibilities of rapid change
This report brings together lessons from the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic ranging across our transport and food systems, working life, arts, culture and consumerism, nature, the logistical challenges of achieving rapid change, mutual aid and leadership during crises by communities. It reveals that people can act rapidly, using the best information at the time, and focus effort and resources with laser-like accuracy where they were needed. The same can be done in the challenge of preserving a habitable climate.
Lessons from Lockdown: Living with less stuff
During lockdown many people have adapted to create new, different, ways of living that turned out to be less wasteful, more thoughtful and kinder on our environment. And, given that ecological decline creates conditions for pandemics, how especially in relatively wealthy countries, better lives are possible with less ‘stuff’.
Lessons from Lockdown: More space for people and nature
Responses to the coronavirus pandemic showed that we can quickly make more space for people and nature in our towns and cities. This briefing on lessons from lockdown looks at how that was done. The measures are increasingly important as people become more aware of a dramatic global decline of plant and animal numbers and how habitat loss drives the spread of viruses between animals and humans