Speech by Rebecca Harms held at the Greens/EFA International Conference "A Green New Deal to tackle the triple crisis" on 27 March 2009.
Dear all,
The Greens and their friends meet today in Brussels. This meeting takes place at the right time and in the right place to debate our common vision for a greener future. We need nothing less than a green revolution to tackle the triple crisis we are facing today:
*The crisis*
{img |size=M |align=right}The threat of global warming doesn't loose its horror in times of collapsing financial markets and economies. At the same time social problems are escalating. For the first time in decades, the volume of world trade is going to decline in 2009, while the per capita income is decreasing. Unemployment is exploding worldwide, hitting the poorest hardest.
And yet – the global financial and the economic downturn worldwide may not be the biggest problems we face today, at least in the long run: Global warming and the vast exploitation of limited resources may come at a much higher cost if we do not act swiftly. “Code Green” on the environment!
The economic, environmental and social challenges we face today reveal the failings of current policies and show the limits of growth. Science has proven that global warming is man-made. Economists have demonstrated how costly climate change (“the greatest and widest market-failure ever seen”) will become if we do not act now. But we are much better off then in the seventies when "Limits of Growth" became first an issue. We have the “smarter” technologies now. And we have more political support then ever before from our citizens for a U-turn in economic policies towards sustainability than ever before.
*The opportunities from the crises *
The triple crisis demands a broad Green New Deal with a long-term vision: Measures taken to stimulate the recovery have at the same time to improve the sustainability of the world economy. The anti-recession programmes now being publicly financed must be high profile and targeted especially in the environmental and social sense. Such a *Green New Deal* could thus address the global challenges of unemployment, could secure and create millions of jobs, and halt climate change and poverty at the same time.
*The EU’s leading role at stake*
In this Green New Deal the EU can and must play a leading role. The EU as a supranational organisation provides an international perspective for a new regulatory framework, international climate policies and a co-ordinated “environmental modernisation”. The environmental and climate debates in the EU are more advanced than in other parts of the world. Yes - the preconditions for a leading European role in sustainable growth are good.
In principle!
Last year the urgency of climate protection measures seemed agreed in all European institutions and all political parties. But the enthusiasm for climate policies is melting away fast: During their spring council in March, EU leaders could not agree on the long-promised climate fund for developing countries and thereby put the Copenhagen conference at risk.
Despite the good preconditions for Europe's leading role in climate policies, the United States is ready to get ahead and take the lead in “green” policies now. While the Americans shake their legs and start to groove green, unafraid of strong regulative policies, some European politicians morn after light bubs. To question efficient light bulbs as an issue of freedom or not is mad. But some of our colleagues do.
And if we look at how the vast sums of public money are being spent to rescue ailing economies around the world, again – Europe seems not on a green track:
No – in the lead are China and South Korea, whose recovery plans have huge “green components”. The USA score due to the mere size of their overall stimulus plan.
The EU’s own recovery plan is green (60%), but insignificant in overall size. And again Carbon Capture and Storage is the wrong priority. In terms of Green recovery Europe is in danger to be the bottom of the league.
But how come the “green revolution” has hardly begun in Europe? How come that Europeans are hesitant instead of grasping the opportunity to real change? How come that – although recent events have combined to bring climate and energy issues to “Main Street” – these issues have not gone very far down this Main Street, as Thomas Friedman puts it.
*Authentic Green policies*
Over the past months, masterminds such as Achim Steiner, Nicolas Stern, Paul Krugman – and such as our invited speakers today – have propelled ideas that are at the heart of green policies:
The goal of putting the world economy on a more sustainable, a more resource and energy efficient path is what the Greens world-wide have been fighting for from their founding years.
In times where most of the other parties abandon all principles, we Greens can and must stick to our convictions. Now we only have to communicate what we believe in and what expertise has long proven: That a successful environmental steering has – beside its intended environmental effects – clear win-win potential through job creation, innovation, growth and successful export.
To make us Greens even more knowledgeable about the measures necessary to bring about the Green changes so urgently needed, I am very happy to welcome today much valued experts in this field:
Prof. Dr. Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek, President of the Factor 10 Institute - an institute that works on resource productivity in production and consumption - will first speak about not only efficiency but the real issue sufficiency
He will be followed by Prof Jean-Pascal van Ypersele de Strihou, a Belgian Climatologic from the Université Catholique de Louvain, and member of the IPCC, who is going to report on latest scientific observations on global warming.
Last speaker is Mr Pavan Sukhdev from UNEP, where he is working on the 'Green Economy'. And if there is a mastermind behind Achim Steiner and his engagement in the Idea of a Green New Deal it is him.
