'100 months to save the planet'

BBC News 21 Jul 08;

A "Green New Deal" is needed to solve current problems of climate change, energy and finance, a report argues.

According to the Green New Deal Group, humanity only has 100 months to prevent dangerous global warming.

Its proposals include major investment in renewable energy and the creation of thousands of new "green collar" jobs.

The name is taken from President Franklin D Roosevelt's "New Deal", launched 75 years ago to bring the US out of the Great Depression.

The new grouping says rising greenhouse gas emissions, combined with escalating food and energy costs, mean the globe is facing one of its biggest crises since the 1930s.

Its members include former Friends of the Earth UK director Tony Juniper, Green MEP Caroline Lucas and Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation (nef).

In an article for the BBC News website's Green Room series, Mr Simms warns that the combination of the current credit crunch, rising energy prices and accelerating emissions are "conspiring to create the perfect storm".


"The UK and the global economy are entering unchartered waters, and the weather forecast is not bad, but appalling.

"Instead of desperate bailing-out, we need a comprehensive plan and new course to navigate each obstacle in this new phenomenon."

The group's recommendations include:

* massive investment in renewable energy and wider transformation in the UK
* the creation of thousands of new "green collar" jobs
* making low-cost capital available to fund the UK's green economic shift
* building a new alliance between environmentalists, industry, agriculture and unions

The authors said their proposals drew inspiration from President Roosevelt's 1933 New Deal.

During 100 days, he sent a record number of bills to Congress, all of which went on to become law, including banking reforms and emergency relief programmes.

The prolific reforms were credited with turning around the US economy.

The authors say that that within "the very real timeframe of 100 months" the world will reach the point where the risk of "runaway" climate change became unacceptably high.

Climate report calls for leaders with vision
Jeremy Lovell, Reuters 20 Jul 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - The world needs leaders with the vision to forge New Deal-type policies to tackle the potentially disastrous combination of climate change, high inflation and economic slowdown, a British think-tank said on Monday.

"A New Green Deal", a report issued by the New Economics Foundation, uses the convergence of the credit crunch, climate change and booming food and fuel prices to make the case for a new economics for the 21st century.

Key points in the report are that every home must generate its own power, an oil legacy fund must be set up using windfall taxes on oil and gas firms to help pay for green transformation, and carbon should be priced according to its climate impact.

Interest rates should be cut to help investment in green energy and transport infrastructure, and monolithic financial institutions should be broken up so the failure of one would not destabilize the economy, said the NEF, an independent group.

"A credit crisis, coupled with high and rising oil prices and long-term climatic upheaval, are conspiring to create the perfect storm," said NEF director Andrew Simms.

"Instead of desperate baling-out, we need a comprehensive plan and a new course to navigate each obstacle in this new phenomenon.

"We need a modern Green New Deal that has the scale, boldness and vision previously only seen, for example, in Roosevelt's response to the Great Depression," he added.

U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was a series of programmes between 1933 and 1938 aimed at helping the poor, reforming the U.S. financial system and stimulating an economy that had plunged into depression after the Wall Street crash.

URGENT ACTION NEEDED

Today, economists say global economic growth is slowing, and most scientists say urgent action is needed to stop the planet entering a period of unstoppable temperature rise caused largely by rising carbon emissions.

"The credit, climate and oil crunches are all individually serious issues, but in combination their impact could be catastrophic for our economy, and for our way of life," said Tony Juniper, co-author of the report and former head of the environmental group Friends of the Earth.

"We need real leadership and vision to get through this, and right now we are not seeing it. Politicians from across the spectrum should signal their willingness to think differently and to embrace new ideas," he added.

The report also calls for a low-carbon energy system, financial incentives and policies to promote energy efficiency, closer scrutiny of exotic tax avoidance instruments, a clampdown on tax havens and new capital controls.

"We need a comprehensive plan which would involve far tougher regulation of capital, changes to tax systems and a sustained programme of investment in energy conservation and renewable energy," said Larry Elliott, economics editor of the left-leaning Guardian newspaper and co-author of the report.

(Editing by Tim Pearce)