The Group of 20 meeting in Washington this week-end will do little in the way of solving the financial crisis, let alone designing a new World Economic Order (WEO). The Green New Deal (GND) hopefuls would like to see environmental concerns built into the fabric of the WEO --- if banks can have reserve requirements, then why not carbon per dollar loan limits too? --- or at least make the idea of Keynesian reflation focused on programs for renewable energy. Whatever the fundamental problems with the suggestion (see my response here), the two practical problems for the GNDers are firstly that Obama will not be present at the Washington meeting and secondly that there is a remarkable lack of support for an international-level tie of the financial and green agendas in the economics community. The creative and very timely Vox ebook edited by Barry Eichengreen and Richard Baldwin has many radical suggestions, but not a mention of any GND ideas.
This may be disappointing for all of us concerned with the environment. But it seems right. We can still avoid depression, and we should focus our attention on that. The unforeseen consequences of the crash of 1929 were horrific, as could be the consequences of depression over the next decade (Simon Maxwell and Dirk Messner in oD are very good on this). This is especially true for emerging nations and powers whose social stabiltiy and geopolitical good behaviour requires delivery of improving economic conditions.
Maxwell and Messner get the balance just right, I think -- the November 30th Copenhagen climate change summit must keep the environmental agenda moving with an eye firmly fixed on the middle-distance. The G20 summit must deal with the immediate and dangerously close.
