Green New Deal (GND)

By David Hill and Jeremy Brecher - Labor Network for Sustainability, November 30, 2023

British journalist DAVID HILL interviewed Jeremy Brecher in the lead-up to COP28 about why international climate negotiations fail and how a “global nonviolent constitutional insurgency” could be a climate game-changer.

DH: Last year when we were in touch you said you thought COP27 “should be the most important meeting in the history of the world – nothing could be more important than international agreement to meet the climate targets laid out by climate science and agreed to by the world’s governments at the Paris Climate Summit.” Do you feel the same about COP28?

JB: Of course, COP28 should be the most important meeting in the history of the world. That was also true of COP27, COP26 and all the previous COP climate meetings. While they should be producing international agreement to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to zero, the reality is that the decades of international climate conferences have simply legitimated ever rising GHG emissions and ever increasing climate destruction. The idea that it is being hosted by Dubai and chaired by Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the head of the United Arab Emirates’s state-owned oil company, represents the height of absurdity – like putting Al Capone in charge of alcohol regulation. Sultan al-Jaber’s letter laying out plans for COP 28 is lacking in ambition to reduce climate destruction. The entire so-called international climate protection process is now controlled by those who hope to gain by climate destruction. A global nonviolent insurgency against the domination of the fossil fuel industry and the governments it controls appears to be the only practical means to counter their plan to destroy humanity.

DH: In other words, COP28 should be the most important meeting in the history of the world, but it’s not going to be. What do you think is the percentage chance of an international agreement to phase out fossil fuels being reached?

JB: The answer to this one is easy: there is zero chance that COP28 will produce an agreement that will actually phase out fossil fuels. The forces that are in control of the governments represented in COP28 represent fossil fuel interests that are intent on continuing and if possible expanding their use. US President Eisenhower once said that the people wanted peace so much that some day the governments would have to get out of their way and let them have it. An international agreement that will actually phase out fossil fuels will come when governments discover that if they want to go on governing they have to let the people have climate safety.

By staff - How We Fix The Climate, February 28, 2024

By Tim Thomas, Sydney Ghazarian, Gaby Sarri-Tobar, and Ted Glick - Center for Biological Diversity, February 4, 2024

By Jeremy Brecher - Labor Network for Sustainability, February 2, 2024

Green New Deal initiatives at local, state, regional, and civil society levels around the country have drawn together diverse, sometimes isolated, or even conflicted constituencies around common programs for climate, jobs, and justice. How have they done so?

Transcript Follows:

By Vanity Amano, Sydney Ghazarian, Gustavo Gordillo, and Marcelina Pedraza - Democratic Socialists of America, January 25, 2024

By Adam Williams, Andrew Glasford, and Peter Kalmus - Green New Deal Network, January 22, 2024

By Jeremy Brecher - Labor Network for Sustainability, January 3, 2024

The appeal of the Green New Deal lies in its drawing together the varied needs of diverse constituencies into a common program that realizes them all. Here’s how that works at the sub-national level.

By Max Ajl and Clara Paillard - Green New Deal Media, December 19, 2023

By Veronica Wilson - Labor Network for Sustainability, December 2023

For the second year in a row, SMART (Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation) International Union hosted a “Cleanup Kingspan Virtual Summit,” inviting organizations to stand with workers fighting for “good” “green” jobs. Labor Network for Sustainability co-sponsored the summit along with Center on Race Poverty and the Environment, Communities for a Better Environment, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and California Green New Deal Network (CA GNDN). The summit was a chance to hear from workers at Kingspan plants in California who are calling for a “Just Transition” – living wages and healthy workplaces for the people who manufacture the “green” products we need to reduce emissions from buildings. 

Kingspan is a $15B company based in Ireland manufacturing building efficiency materials like insulation and skylights. Workers at two Kingspan factories in Modesto and Santa Ana, California described indoor air pollution, a lack of basic protective equipment, persistent cough, headaches, throat and nasal irritation, and shared why they’re calling out Kingspan for greenwashing. Rafael Cabrera said, “Health & Safety at Kingspan is important to me because a company that prides itself on being environmentally sustainable should make sure their employees work in a safe & healthy work environment.” 

From a community perspective on the importance of cleaning up a company like Kingspan, Zach Lou from the California Green New Deal Network said “Equitable climate action must also mean making sure any company, like Kingspan, that wants to brand itself as part of the solution to the climate crisis, is also one that offers good jobs and treats its workers with dignity and respect. We’re proud to stand in solidarity and support with these workers to call out Kingspan for its greenwashing and demand that they improve the health and safety conditions for all their workers.”

For more: “Kingspan Workers Expose the Dark Side of a ‘Green’ Industry-” Clean Up Kingspan

By Jeremy Brecher - Labor Network for Sustainability, November 30, 2023