Why we must have a Green New Deal

The Green party's strategy to combat our environmental and economic crises could set the agenda for the future

Jenny Jones
guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 January 2009 11.00 GMT

What misery – a recession and the urgent problem of climate change at the same time. This double dilemma is a painful reality, and dealing with both at once has become the only way out of the mess.
I believe that the way to handle both the crises – economic and environmental – is to go green. It will take a united effort from all parts of society, and an understanding that going green is the easiest and cheapest, and probably the only, way to survive into the next century. The most sensible solution, the most achievable, is a green New Deal.
This green New Deal must tackle the three issues at the heart of regeneration and recovery – in London and for the whole country – transport, jobs and the local economy. This recession and the demands of mitigating climate change will need a concerted effort, from all political parties and all strands of political thought, whether religious or secular.Other parties do talk green, which is great, but they simply don't do enough to back up the fine words. They don't get the urgency of the problem. Here in London, the new mayor is a charming, funny man, but totally lacking a philosophy. This means his policies are occasionally green, sometimes regressive, sometimes plain daft. There is no sense of making London a leading city in climate change adaptation and mitigation. There is no sense of purpose, only movement, mostly influenced by whether Ken Livingstone did it (oppose) or didn't do it (must be good).
For Labour, agreeing to the Heathrow expansion has made Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson look like men of the past, not the future, and although it's wonderful that the Tories are opposing the expansion, that doesn't make them greenies. Sadly, the government's proposed investments in greener technology are puny, and the 100,000 jobs promised recently are nowhere near enough. We need a full-blown green industrial revolution that we can all buy into.
What we absolutely can't do is trot out the same economic dogma that got us into the mess in the first place. To tackle this recession we must kickstart the green industrial revolution and work towards a sustainable, steady, state economy.
We could begin with the deal that the Green party proposed in its pre-budget statement in November 2008:
• Implement a £30bn stimulus package, creating green-collar jobs that will dramatically reduce the carbon emissions of UK buildings. If, as a rough guide, we reckon each job cost £50,000 to create, a £30bn stimulus can be expected to create more than half a million jobs.
• Create new national investment products, such as local government bonds, to fund this work and provide a safe haven for pensions and savings.
• Shift from VAT to pollution taxes, immediately slashing VAT to 5% for items that will stimulate sustainable job-creation, and abolishing road tax while increasing pollution taxes on fuel.
• Close offshore tax havens to stabilise the financial sector, discourage tax avoidance and help provide funds for sustainable investment.
I'm not saying that we Greens have all the answers, just that so far we have put more time into thinking about it – and economists and industrialists are increasingly coming around to our way of thinking.
To deal with these huge issues quickly and efficiently, we need a major shift in our politics and in our understanding. We have to forget sectarian dogma and understand that working together in certain areas, even if only in limited ways, can bring greater benefits than solo working.
Even more important, we need to forget the false arguments about the environment v economics, because ultimately the only viable forms of economics will be those that don't compromise our sustainability and the survival of generations to come.