Green New Deal (GND)

By Jonathan Essex - Greener Jobs Alliance, March 19, 2024

The Greener Jobs Alliance was very pleased to invite Jonathan Essex to speak at our AGM on 13 February. Here Jonathan expands on the ideas in that presentation in a two-part blog posting, focusing, in this first part, on the urgent need for a different approach to transition in several specific sectors.

Green jobs plans are an important part of the transition to a zero-carbon economy. But they need wider political commitments to make this happen. This piece explores the need for a stronger position by the UK government on phasing out fossil fuels, for a transition for heavy industry such as steel, for reducing overall demand for energy and materials, and for this to be set within an economics of redistribution. 

No more oil, coal and gas

First, we need to stop extracting ever more coal, oil and gas. We can’t afford to extract and burn current reserves, let alone new reserves. That Rosebank, the large new oilfield in the North Sea, should not be exploited, is a litmus test of political commitment to sufficient climate action. It has long been known that we must leave at least 80% of coal, oil and gas as unburnable to stay within 2°C of global warming. In 2021, the International Energy Agency said that no more oil, gas or coal reserves should be developed to stay within the limit of 1.5°C. In 2023 researchers have estimated that 60% of existing oil, gas and coal fields and mines already open or under construction need to be shut down. 

The implication for the UK is clear. No more offshore or onshore fossil fuel extraction should start, and existing North Sea oil and gas fields should be phased out. 

But to constrain fossil fuel burning within global limits we need more global restraint of supply and demand than has been envisaged, let alone agreed, at global climate conferences.

Firstly, a non-fossil fuel proliferation treaty is needed to keep large amounts of existing reserves, including that already being exploited, in the ground in a fair manner. This needs a global transition fund and clear agreed plans for its implementation. 

The UK and other historic emitters should lead by example. For the UK this means not just no to Rosebank but no new coal mine in Cumbria, no fracking or other onshore extraction. 

But that is only half of the story. Research by Fergus Green on climate policy highlights that to be effective, policies to limit fossil fuel extraction and constrain demand for oil, coal and gas need to work together. They use the analogy of a pair of scissors. Unless pressure is put on both sides, to reduce supply and demand together, then policies to cut carbon will not work. 

So, alongside limiting extraction, real efforts to curtail demand are needed. Such demand reduction must start with key sectors of the economy that have to date largely defied efforts to decarbonise. Three are explored here: transport (particularly aviation, shipping and road freight), heavy industry and the overall demand for high carbon ways of living. To explore this the fastest growing form of transport emissions – aviation – and perhaps the cornerstone of heavy industry – the steel industry – are considered, before exploring how society as a whole might make sufficient changes.

By Kira McDonald, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Ruthy Gourevitch - Climate and Community Project, March 2023

The massive backlog of deferred maintenance for public housing in the United States demands a comprehensive, holistic solution that brings every unit in the country up to the highest health and environmental standards: A Green New Deal for Public Housing. This plan would deliver healthy green upgrades and deep-energy retrofits of the nation’s public housing stock to massively increase residents' health and quality of life, finally remedy the long backlog of repairs in public housing, and eliminate all carbon pollution from public housing buildings, while creating badly needed, high quality jobs in the green economy for people in public housing communities. In so doing, a Green New Deal for Public Housing would also build on successful models in the US and abroad that have leveraged investments in public housing to accelerate green technologies throughout the buildings sector – benefiting consumers and hastening decarbonization well beyond only public housing.

Public housing is facing an existential crisis. Chronic underfunding has created the conditions for a rapid decline of units, with the loss of one out of every four public housing units in just over a decade. Our analysis shows that between 2009 and 2022, the public housing stock has shrunk from 1.2 million units to just over 900,000 as a result of demolition, privatization or other conversions from Section 9. In the context of decades-long underfunding of public housing, the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) emerged as an option to address the large and growing capital repairs backlog. RAD mandates a transfer of ownership or management from PHAs to other entities, who can then circumvent restrictions associated with traditional public housing funding streams and access additional funding from which PHAs are excluded. RAD can often entail the privatization of public housing, although the new managing entity can also be a tenant association, non-profit, or a public subsidiary of the PHA. RAD has accelerated – but did not initiate – the loss of Section 9 public housing in the United States. Since RAD began in 2012, 230,000 public housing units have already been converted or are in process to convert to this alternative ownership model. 

Download a copy of this publication here (PDF).

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