“100 months to save the planet”

The clock is ticking. And is getting faster. We are entering the most serious global crisis since the Great Depression, at the same time as we face unprecedented climate change.

Such is the need for urgent action that we only have only 100 months to save the planet, according to a new policy group called the Green New Deal Group.
They are arguing that a “Green New Deal” is needed to solve current problems of climate change, energy and finance and that we only have 100 months to prevent dangerous runaway climate change. They are calling for serious reform the like of which has not, yet, been considered by politicians.
This entails re-regulating finance and taxation plus a huge transformational programme aimed at substantially reducing the use of fossil fuels and, in the process, tackling the unemployment and decline in demand caused by the credit crunch. It involves policies and new funding mechanisms that will reduce emissions and allow us to cope better with the coming energy shortages caused by peak oil.
Taking inspiration from President Franklin D Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, launched 75 years ago to bring the US out of the Great Depression, the group proposes major investment in renewable energy and the creation of thousands of new “green collar” jobs, to prevent one of its biggest crises since the 1930s.
Andrew Simms from the New Economic Foundation in the UK and member of the new group warns that the combination of the current credit crunch, rising energy prices and accelerating emissions are “conspiring to create the perfect storm”.
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

“Instead of desperate baling out, and in the absence of a joined-up plan from government, the Green New Deal is the first attempt to outline a comprehensive plan and a new course to navigate each obstacle in our path, “argues Andrew Simms. “If successful, we also believe that emerging on the other side of the storm, we will find the world to be a better place. It is, at the very least, too important to fail.”