"The Global Green New Deal and
Public Ownership of Energy"
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
12:00pm - 1:30pm (U.S. Eastern Time)
Register to join us via Zoom - this is a virtual-only event.
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Join us on Zoom to learn more about the latest working paper from Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED), with Sean Sweeney, TUED coordinator and author of BEYOND RECOVERY: The Global Green New Deal and Public Ownership of Energy.
Moderated by Brian Kamanzi of SLU’s International Program on Labor, Climate and the Environment.
Q&A to follow the conversation.
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About the Working Paper:
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, calls for a "Global Green New Deal" ("GGND") and a commitment to "global public goods" ("GPGs") intensified. In July 2020, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared, “The global political and economic system is not delivering on critical global public goods: public health, climate action, sustainable development, peace…we need a New Global Deal to ensure that power, wealth and opportunities are shared more broadly and fairly at the international level.”
Authored by TUED Coordinator Sean Sweeney, the paper argues that a GGND of the left must distinguish itself from green “recovery economics.” Many North-based progressives are comfortable talking about the need for “more public investment,” and the need for “ambitious climate action” but many continue to be vague or agnostic on questions of public ownership and control.
The paper argues that an undiscerning approach to public investment weakens the case for a GGND. It shows how the current emphasis on “de-risking” private investment means that public money is used to make profitable what would not otherwise be profitable. Obama’s stimulus package of 2008, to the more recent Green Deal for Europe, and the Biden Administration’s Inflation Recovery Act that commits $369 billion of public spending to secure long-term revenue streams and profits for mostly private investors and developers. The more recent “Just Energy Transition Partnerships'' and the emphasis on “blended finance” are an extension of this approach.
Taking a deep dive into the roots of neoliberal climate policy, Beyond Recovery shows how a “recovery” narrative has helped both conceal and perpetuate the failures of the current investor-focused approach to energy transition and climate protection. For more than three decades, this approach has shown itself to be ineffective in terms of reducing economy-wide emissions. Sweeney describes the policy as a resilient failure, the extent of which is not always fully grasped.
Hosted by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.
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Sean Sweeney
Brian Kamanzi
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