A Green New Deal?

The New Economics Foundation is promoting a Green New Deal which it analogous to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Andrew Simms has also written about it on the BBC website.

Just some of the things wrong with it include:

• The assumption that the world is facing an economic crisis comparable to the Great Depression. I will publish a post on this tomorrow.

• The assumption there is only 100 months to act to deal with runaway climate change.

• The idea that the world is facing a problem of “peak oil”. More on this soon but I am coming to the conclusion that the key driver of surging prices is the lack of investment in energy supply.

• The idea that the problem to energy shortages lies in curbing demand rather than bolstering supply.

• The notion that there is any direct link between environmental problems and the financial crisis.

• The argument that financial problems are undermining the economy. This confuses cause and effect.