A "Global Green New Deal" – UN Views Financial Crisis as Opportunity to Impose Environmental Mandates and Relieve Extreme Poverty
ECONOMICS, FINANCE & TRADE, ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH, SUSTAINABILITY
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
In a March 2009 policy brief titled “Global Green New Deal” (GGND), the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) encourages UN Member States to “green” their various stimulus packages to create a “post-recession economy that is sustainable in the medium to longer term.” UNEP maintains that by focusing on environmentally friendly economic recovery initiatives, States will avoid recreating the “unsustainable ‘brown economy’” that the UNEP believes led to the current financial crises and extreme poverty.
The UNEP thinks that the former “brown economy” not only gave rise to the present global financial crisis, but also created other global crises, including a water crisis, food crisis, climate crisis, and energy crisis. In short, the UNEP views the “brown economy” as exacerbating extreme poverty in developing countries by infringing on the “emerging” economic human rights to water, food, and energy.
By using the present financial crisis as a vehicle for “greening” national economies, the UNEP believes that it will be able to meet the three-fold objectives of reinvigorating the world economy; reducing the effects of carbon-induced climate change; and achieving the Millennium Development Goals, particularly those related to ending extreme poverty. To meet these objectives, the UNEP urges Member States to reallocate national stimulus funds to environmentally friendly programs and to adopt domestic and international economic policies and reforms.
First, the GGND encourages governments to allocate a portion of their stimulus packages to “infrastructure needed for a new environmentally-sustainable economy.” This would include investing in the retrofitting and construction of energy efficient buildings, sustainable transportation, sustainable energy projects, and sustainable agriculture and freshwater systems.
Second, the GGND makes several domestic policy suggestions to help stimulate an environmentally-sustainable economy. Primary among these is the disposal of “perverse subsidies,” such as agriculture and fossil fuels, that can damage the environment and perpetuate global poverty; the creation or revision of domestic environmental legislation in order to address fuel, energy, and climate concerns; the addition of “green conditionalities” to any automobile manufacturer bailout programs; and the development of a tax-based incentive system that would discourage the consumption of environmentally damaging products, including taxes relating to automobile fuel consumption. Indeed, in a recent article published by Reuters, Achim Steiner, head of the UNEP, suggests developing a per-barrel oil tax for countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that could easily be passed along to the consumer.
From an international policy standpoint, the GGND recommends avoiding protectionist policies in regards to international trade agreements; encourages States to maintain or increase their levels of international aid (even in the midst of the economic crisis); stresses the need for the international community to develop a global carbon market agreement at the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009; and encourages developed countries to aid in the transfer of technology to less-developed nations by investing in research and development for developing countries and relaxing intellectual property regulation.
Finally, consistent with increasing UN global governance ambitions, the UNEP highlights the need to have international coordination of the GGND’s recommendations.
Jim Kelly is the President of Solidarity Center for Law and Justice, P.C., a public interest civil and human rights law firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. The opinions expressed herein are his own.
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