Will the Green New Deal deliver?

Today's proposals by finance, energy and environment experts could bring long-term benefits – provided politicians take them to heart

Stephen Hale
guardian.co.uk,
Monday July 21, 2008

The "Green New Deal" is a fantastic catchphrase. A new slogan can take even an old idea a long way, as the proponents of Nudge have proved recently. How important is this one?
The Green New Deal team deserve praise for sketching out a solution to the triple whammy of the downturn, rising oil prices and climate change. As they argue, our failure to break our oil addiction is a significant cause of the current downturn. There is no long-term route out of this unless we break the habit, and take radical action on climate change.
Their report is targeted at politicians. But climate campaigners must also take it to heart. We (Green Alliance included) worry too much about which political party would take up our cause, and who might win the next election. The impact of the economic downturn is already greater than anything that will follow the next election. We need new proposals and alliances that will succeed in this new world.
The proposals are another blow to the doomsayers. Two months ago, the May local elections and the economic downturn were being widely hailed as the end of the environment as a public and political priority. But neither businesses, politicians or the public see it this way. There was a decline in concern for the environment in the recession of the 1990s. But today is different. The high oil price creates some synergies between environmental and economic action, and public awareness and commitment is far greater now than it was then.
The prime minister has been far too slow to see this, though his rhetoric has improved since he returned empty-handed from a trip to Jeddah pleading for higher oil production. The New Deal team want him to commit to their proposals in the autumn. I support many of them, such as decentralised energy, and funding for developing countries to adapt to climate change. I hope the prime minister takes them up on these.
But for me the prime minister must go further. The Green New Deal package would deliver in the long-term, but increase household and industry bills in the meantime. That could well provoke a public backlash that would unravel these commitments. So we need the prime minister to take actions that benefit people much more quickly. Otherwise (to paraphrase Keynes) in the long-run all these climate change policies could be dead.
That means radical action that delivers quickly, above all on efficiency. The high and rising cost of fuel and energy make efficiency a critical part of a politically sustainable strategy. The high oil price should be the springboard for an efficiency revolution – in households, in business and in all forms of transport. It would yield rapid and high returns for those who made it. Governments should lead the way. The proposed "carbon army" should be put to work on this, and fast.
The public are feeling the pinch, and need help now to play their part in this transition. People are driving less – but they need better alternatives. People want to make their homes more energy efficient – but need a quick and attractive way to do it.
The Green New Deal team is onto something very important. The policies need work to make them benefit the economy, people and the environment. But they must also work politically. That means we need action that delivers benefits quickly to a public that is already hurting. Green Alliance will play our part in the struggle to find a green route out of the impending recession.
Stephen Hale is the director of Green Alliance, an environmental thinktank that aims to place environmental solutions at the heart of British politics.