Needed: Government investment, political leadership and delivery

The first week of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit coincides with the UK governments pre-budget announcements.

The Green New Deal Group focuses on the ‘triple crunch’ of the current financial, energy and environmental crises. Earlier this week they published The cuts won’t work which …shows how, contrary to the policy of all the major political parties, cutting public spending now will tip the nation into a deeper recession by increasing unemployment, reducing the tax received and limiting government funding available to kick-start the Green New Deal.

Instead a bold new programme of ‘green quantitative easing,’ rather than simply propping up failing banks, could help reduce the public debt and kick-start the transformation of the UK’s energy supply while creating thousands of new green-collar jobs. … Read more

Chris Hewett, associate, Theme leader on Sustainable Economy at the Green Alliance, discusses the possible establishment of a green investment bank in the UK

If we are to deliver on the commitments being negotiated in Copenhagen and in the government’s own Low Carbon Transition Plan, we need to use the big economic levers of tax, public spending and capital investment to make it happen. But such measures need political leadership to ensure delivery. We recognise that current economic circumstances make any major changes in policy harder to achieve. Against this backdrop, Green Alliance welcomes measures announced today in the pre-budget report (PBR), such as…

…the creation of Infrastructure UK to focus on renewal of Britain’s infrastructure including the low carbon transition, which will look at the case for a low carbon investment institution, or green investment bank … Read more

Relevant links

The Economics of Happiness
1 – 19 February 2010

After Copenhagen: Opportunities and challenges
1 – 19 March 2010

Schumacher College will be holding a stand and running a plenary session on localism and resilience at the Copenhagen Climate Change Civil Society event this December.

http://www.greennewdealgroup.org

http://www.greenalliance.org.uk

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