2020-02-28
The US Greens and Bernie Sanders agree that a Green New Deal is urgently needed and advocate quite similar plans for achieving this
By Juanita Doorey, Member of the Fremantle-Tangney Greens
Just 3 weeks’ ago Adam Bandt was elected Parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens and immediately kick started the campaign for a Green New Deal for Australia. He articulated what a Green New Deal could look like ‒ a government-led plan of investment and action to build a clean economy and a caring society. Progressive parties and movements in other parts of the world, such as the US, Canada, England, parts of Europe and Latin America are also grappling with what a Green New Deal should look like for them. This article focuses on the US experience – how has the Green New Deal entered into the national debate and how are Democratic Presidential nominees, including Bernie Sanders, campaigning for a Green New Deal in the lead up to the 2020 Presidential elections? And what does the US Greens’ Party Green New Deal look like?
A good place to start is Naomi Klein’s 2019 book “ON FIRE The Burning Case for a Green New Deal”. The author and journalist presents a cogent and engaging case for a Green New Deal, referring to it as a ‘systems upgrade’ response to the often disparate but interlocking ecological, social, economic and democratic crises that we face nationally and globally. She argues that rather than taking a ‘siloed’ approach to tackling climate change and the many social issues confronting us (such as growing inequality, wage stagnation and underfunded public services), that a Green New Deal provides a transformative plan for a new and different type of economy.
Klein describes the emergence of a Green New Deal in the US in some detail, while referencing similar movements in Canada, parts of Europe and Britain. In the US the Green New Deal came to national prominence during the November 2018 midterm elections, when young climate activists from the Sunrise Movement mobilised to remove politicians backed by fossil fuel. Not long after the IPCC published its landmark report in October 2018, members of the Sunrise Movement also chanted for a New Green Deal in the US Congress and occupied Nancy Pelosi’s office demanding that the Democratic Party leadership adopt more effective climate change policies.
Enter Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – the youngest woman ever elected to the US Congress ‒ in November 2018, running on a platform for a Green New Deal. Just three months later, in February 2019, Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts announced a formal resolution for a Green New Deal which includes:
1. A call for the US to decarbonise, with net-zero emissions within a decade.
2. Significant investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and clean transportation, with workers transitioning from high-carbon industries to green jobs having their wage levels protected.
3. A guarantee of a job for all who want to work.
4. Communities that have experienced the worst of the polluting, including Indigenous, African-American, to not only benefit from the transition but to help design it at the local level.
5. Free universal health care, child care and higher education.
This radical platform has been endorsed by at least 105 members (approximately 20%) of the House and Senate and by the majority of leading Democratic presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Noami Klein makes the point that Sanders and Warren also have a strong track record of standing up to the most powerful industries trying to block a Green New Deal: namely fossil fuel companies and the banks that back them. But there have been criticisms of this Green New Deal resolution, including from Naomi Klein, such as not calling for an outright end to fossil fuel ‒ ‘let’s keep it in the ground’!
Bernie Sanders and a Green New Deal:
Looking at Bernie Sanders’ campaign website and his commitment to a Green New Deal is pretty inspirational! If elected President, Sanders has committed to a ‘decade of the Green New Deal’ ‒ a ten-year, nationwide mobilisation centred around justice and equity and where climate change will be factored into virtually every policy area.
Key points from Bernie Sanders’ plan include:
- Transforming the US energy system to 100 percent renewable energy and creating 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis.
- Ensuring a just transition for communities and workers, including fossil fuel workers.
- Ensuring justice for frontline communities, especially under-resourced groups, communities of colour, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children and the elderly.
- Saving American families money with investments in weatherisation, public transport, modern infrastructure and high-speed broadband.
- Committing to reducing emissions throughout the world, including providing $200 billion to the Green Climate Fund, re-joining the Paris Agreement, and reasserting the United States’ leadership in the global fight against climate change.
- Investing in conservation and public lands to heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands.
- Ending the greed of the fossil fuel industry and hold them accountable.
- Seeing climate change as a global emergency.
Naomi Klein has publicly backed Bernie Sanders’ plan for a Green New Deal stating that it addresses the scale of the crisis and puts justice at the centre. She argues that while other Democratic nominees have worthwhile national plans, that Sanders takes a more internationalist approach ‒ he recognises that climate justice doesn’t just stop at the border. And while Elizabeth Warren also supports a Green New Deal, her plan is quite different to what Sanders is proposing – Warren’s focus is on regulating the big corporations and making them greener, while Sanders’ proposal is more redistributive and includes making private utilities publicly-owned companies. Of course, there are the critics who point to the financial costs associated with this bold plan ‒ but what are the costs of not doing it?
The US Greens and a Green New Deal:
What have the US Greens been doing on this issue? As early as 2010 the Greens candidate for New York State Governor campaigned for a Green New Deal and US Greens Presidential candidate Jill Stein also campaigned on it during her 2012 Presidential campaign. The US Greens advocate net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and 100% renewable energy by 2030 together with an ‘Economic Bill of Rights’ – the right to single-payer healthcare, a guaranteed job at a living wage, affordable housing and free college education. Together with a raft of progressive politics, the US Greens also call for ‘energy democracy’ based on public, community and worker ownership of the energy system and that energy be regarded as a human right.
Where to from here?
With the US Presidential election being held in November this year, campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination is in full swing. Bernie Sanders is currently riding a wave and the outcome will be both fascinating and crucial. Here in Australia the Greens have bravely called for a Green New Deal and re-invigorated party and public debate about what a Green New Deal should look like for Australia. I am proud to be a member of a party having the courage and determination to do this and will definitely be joining Adam Bandt’s call for ‘All aboard the Green New Deal’.
References:
Bernie – The Green New Deal. https://berniesanders.com/en/issues/green-new-deal/
Greens Party US – Green New Deal https://www.gp.org/green_new_deal
Holden, E & Gambino, L. Green New Deal: Ocasio-Cortez unveils bold plan to fight climate change. 7 February 2019. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/07/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-plan
Karlis, N. Noami Klein: Bernie Sanders’ Green New Deal Plan is our best hope. February 21, 2020. https://www.salon.com/2020/02/21/naomi-klein-bernie-sanders-green-new-deal-plan-is-our-best-hope/
Klein, N. (2019) ON FIRE: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal. Allen Lane: UK.
[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]