The narrative surrounding the Green New Deal championed by climate activists in the US and the UK is one of sweeping action to address the climate crisis, huge government investment in public infrastructure, and repairing the historical harms of communities disproportionately affected by pollution and climate change.
But how specifically does the Green New Deal unleash itself from the imperatives of our current political economy—the constant need for growth, the resource (and often colonialist) extraction, the firm corporate grip on the body politic—and move towards an economy based on democracy, justice, and sustainability? That’s what we sought to investigate in our recent report on internationalism and the Green New Deal out with the think tank Common Wealth.
One strategy is clear: the transformation of the energy sector through public ownership. Specifically, this means tackling the issue of fossil fuel extraction by prompting a federal buyout of the fossil fuel majors, engaging in regional planning and enterprise to shepherd a just transition for communities and workers, and kicking out a fossilized investor-driven energy system and replacing it with a system of energy democracy.
