♻️ Will a greener economy be more just?
In 2007-2008, America’s political lexicon acquired a new term – the Green New Deal. Like the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt reanimated the US economy after the Great Depression, the Green New Deal was supposed to respond to the challenges that faced the world due to climate change. The discussion of this resumed with renewed force a decade later when the Green Wing began to take shape in the Democratic Party. In February 2019, a draft resolution on the Green New Deal was sent to the US Senate. It suggested bringing greenhouse emissions in the US to zero within a decade. The main ideas aimed at reaching this goal were renunciation of fossil fuels and an increase in resource efficiency. Even though the ideas in the bill enjoyed support from a number of prominent Democrats, the Senate vote was a heavy defeat for its initiators. It became obvious that America was not yet ready for the Green New Deal, even at the declaration level.
Meanwhile, the positions of Green parties were growing stronger in Europe. In May 2019, they achieved impressive success in the European Parliament (EP) elections. Ursula von der Leyen, who was elected President of the European Commission in July, made the climate agenda a priority. The document, The European Green Deal, was published on December 11, ten days after she assumed office. The stated goal is to make the EU climate neutral with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The EU will move towards this goal by shifting to renewable energy sources for electricity generation, increasing housing energy efficiency and creating “smart infrastructure.” The price tag for the programme is a trillion euros in the first decade. The symbolic significance is as follows: the EU declares itself a global leader in promoting the climate agenda and sets new standards for cooperation between the state, business and society in countering climate change.
In the next few years it will implement a large-scale programme under which companies that use green technology will be entitled to billions in subsidies whereas those that do not comply with toughening environmental demands will have to sustain both financial and market losses.
🌱Recently we launched a new project “Climate and Politics”. The second part of it will discuss the impact of the green agenda on businesses.
#climate_and_politics #climate #climatechange #gogreen #politics #EU #globalwarming #sustainabledevelopment
In 2007-2008, America’s political lexicon acquired a new term – the Green New Deal. Like the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt reanimated the US economy after the Great Depression, the Green New Deal was supposed to respond to the challenges that faced the world due to climate change. The discussion of this resumed with renewed force a decade later when the Green Wing began to take shape in the Democratic Party. In February 2019, a draft resolution on the Green New Deal was sent to the US Senate. It suggested bringing greenhouse emissions in the US to zero within a decade. The main ideas aimed at reaching this goal were renunciation of fossil fuels and an increase in resource efficiency. Even though the ideas in the bill enjoyed support from a number of prominent Democrats, the Senate vote was a heavy defeat for its initiators. It became obvious that America was not yet ready for the Green New Deal, even at the declaration level.
Meanwhile, the positions of Green parties were growing stronger in Europe. In May 2019, they achieved impressive success in the European Parliament (EP) elections. Ursula von der Leyen, who was elected President of the European Commission in July, made the climate agenda a priority. The document, The European Green Deal, was published on December 11, ten days after she assumed office. The stated goal is to make the EU climate neutral with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The EU will move towards this goal by shifting to renewable energy sources for electricity generation, increasing housing energy efficiency and creating “smart infrastructure.” The price tag for the programme is a trillion euros in the first decade. The symbolic significance is as follows: the EU declares itself a global leader in promoting the climate agenda and sets new standards for cooperation between the state, business and society in countering climate change.
In the next few years it will implement a large-scale programme under which companies that use green technology will be entitled to billions in subsidies whereas those that do not comply with toughening environmental demands will have to sustain both financial and market losses.
🌱Recently we launched a new project “Climate and Politics”. The second part of it will discuss the impact of the green agenda on businesses.
#climate_and_politics #climate #climatechange #gogreen #politics #EU #globalwarming #sustainabledevelopment
Valdai Club
Why a Greener Economy Will Hardly Be More Just
How the climate agenda is changing world politics and our lives
🧊🌳Climate change is one of the greatest challenge of this century.
Climate change had ushered wide range of environmental challenges and affected our economic and social systems. These impacts of climate change are likely to become more severe over next few decades and thus collective efforts to build a resilience system at global and national levels are required.
1️⃣ Firstly, we need to adapt to natural climate variations as well as long-term climate change by improving delivery of basic climate products and services.
2️⃣ Secondly, the concentration of CO2 is now 410 ppm, which is almost 30 percent higher than at any time during past 800,000 years and hence urgent global actions are required for its mitigation.
3️⃣ Another aspect: we need to keep in mind is that the warming is causing release of methane from permafrost of Arctic, Greenland and Tibetan Plateau and likely to further increase temperature of the world which in turn will lead to more thawing, in a feedback loop.
The knowledge about climate change has been quite sound, however, our understanding about its impacts on water resources, agriculture and health, etc. is still limited.
👉 Nayak Shailesh, Director of National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bengaluru), writes about India's response to climate change and about the importance of international cooperation in this field.
#India #climate #climatechange #globalwarming
Climate change had ushered wide range of environmental challenges and affected our economic and social systems. These impacts of climate change are likely to become more severe over next few decades and thus collective efforts to build a resilience system at global and national levels are required.
1️⃣ Firstly, we need to adapt to natural climate variations as well as long-term climate change by improving delivery of basic climate products and services.
2️⃣ Secondly, the concentration of CO2 is now 410 ppm, which is almost 30 percent higher than at any time during past 800,000 years and hence urgent global actions are required for its mitigation.
3️⃣ Another aspect: we need to keep in mind is that the warming is causing release of methane from permafrost of Arctic, Greenland and Tibetan Plateau and likely to further increase temperature of the world which in turn will lead to more thawing, in a feedback loop.
The knowledge about climate change has been quite sound, however, our understanding about its impacts on water resources, agriculture and health, etc. is still limited.
👉 Nayak Shailesh, Director of National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bengaluru), writes about India's response to climate change and about the importance of international cooperation in this field.
#India #climate #climatechange #globalwarming
Valdai Club
The Climate Change Challenge
Climate change is one of the greatest challenge of this century. The climate system of the Earth behaves as a single, interlinked and self-regulating system. The mass and energy transfer between and among its components; atmosphere, ocean, geosphere, cryosphere…