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GREEN NEW DEAL TO BE LAUNCHED IN STROUD |
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 How to Come out of the Recession Healthier, Wealthier and a Lot More Green
The meeting will be held at the Subscription Rooms, Stroud on Thursday
27th November, from 7.30pm.
The global economy is facing a ‘triple crunch’. It is a combination of a credit-fuelled
financial crisis, accelerating climate change and soaring energy prices underpinned
by an encroaching peak in oil production. These three overlapping events threaten
to develop into a perfect storm, the like of which has not been seen since the Great
Depression. To help prevent this from happening we are proposing a Green New Deal.
At a public meeting called ‘Defying the Recession’ and hosted by the Green Party, Colin Hines, Director of Finance for the Future and co-author of the report The Green New Deal will explain how this environmental update of Roosevelt’s New Deal offers joined-up policies to solve the triple crunch of the credit crisis, climate change, and diminishing oil supplies.
Martin Whiteside, parliamentary candidate for Stroud, will make the links between the national plans for green investment and local businesses. Martin said:
‘The Green New Deal is an exciting opportunity for us to invest in the businesses that will create a sustainable green economy. Government has recognized the need to invest to prevent massive increases in unemployment, but it is vital that this investment is spent strategically to bring about a green industrial revolution. Stroud already has a thriving green economy and we need to ensure that government money is directed towards increasing skills and employment in this sector.’
The Green New Deal is a carefully researched response to the credit crunch and wider energy crisis (http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/greennewdealneededforuk210708.aspx). It proposes comprehensive, joined-up action from politicians including:
The creation thousands of new ‘green collar’ jobs as part of a ‘carbon army’;
Reigning in reckless aspects of the financial sector;
Making low-cost capital available to fund the UK’s green economic shift;
Building alliances between environmentalists, industry, agriculture and unions to put the interests of the real economy ahead of footloose finance.
Molly Scott Cato, green economist and economics speaker for the Green Party, who will also be speaking at the meeting said, ‘On Monday the government will announce its fiscal stimulus package to put money back into the economy to counteract the worst effects of the recession, but this should be targeted towards green sectors to ensure a double dividend of jobs and sustainability.’
Simon Pickering from Ecotricity will be on the platform and will discuss the role of electricity generation and supply companies in the low-carbon economy.
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