The Opportunity
The response to the credit crunch has demonstrated the vast sums
of money governments can make available at low rates of interest
when they believe it is required. Already governments have pledged
over 2.5 trillion dollars of preferential debt or direct funding to
be made available to the financial sector over the next two years.
Furthermore, governments have taken direct control or gained
significant influence over a number of major banks. This control
should be used to channel and tie future investments to sustainable
outcomes.
Greenpeace and many of our colleague groups are calling for a
planetary rescue package to create jobs, rebuild the economy, and
protect the climate for future generations. Many advocates have
likened the approach to a "Green New Deal," reminiscent of the
programs President Franklin Roosevelt used to lift the economy out
of the Great Depression.
It is conservatively estimated that such programs could create
4.1 million new jobs nationwide over the next few decades.
See: http://www.usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/GreenJobsReport.pdf
This briefing outlines key policy measures capable of addressing
the financial and environmental crises.
The Threat: Climate Risk is Greater Than Financial Risk
We are destroying our environmental capital. The World Bank
economist Sir Nicholas Stern conservatively estimates that global
warming now causes a drag on the global economy equal to 2 percent
of its entire GDP. That number could hit 20 percent by 2050 if we
do not act. Rising sea levels threaten to displace hundreds of
millions of people before the end of the century. Forest
destruction now costs the world economy at least $2 trillion
annually. Droughts and forest fires are destroying the resources
that underpin our food supply. We literally can't afford not to
act.
What Needs To Be Done
1. Increase research and development spending on clean energy
and energy efficiency. A new Greenpeace and European Renewable
Energy Council report shows that investment in clean power and
energy efficiency worldwide would create a $360 billion a year
industry, provide half of the world's electricity, and slash $18
trillion in future fuel expenditures-all while protecting the
climate.
Greenpeace's global energy blueprint is available for download
at:
www.greenpeace.org/energyrevolution
In October, the United States Conference of Mayors released a
report laying out scenarios where a clean energy economy creates
4.1 million new jobs over the next few decades.
The mayors' report can be downloaded at:
http://www.usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/GreenJobsReport.pdf
Similarly, a report by the Center for American Progress
estimates that investing $100 billion in the US green economy (just
one-seventh the size of the Wall Street bailout) would create four
times more jobs as the same amount invested in the oil industry and
300,000 more jobs than spending directed at household
consumption.
The Center for American Progress's green jobs report is
available at:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/09/green_recovery.html)
University of Massachusetts table comparing job creation
potential of polluting industries vs. the green economy:
/usa/Global/usa/binaries/2008/10/green-job-creation-table.pdf
2. Quitting coal. The biggest contributor to global warming
pollution in the United States is coal-fired power plants.
Greenpeace's global energy blueprint shows by greatly increasing
the amount of renewable energy in our system, using gas as a
transitional fuel and introducing aggressive energy efficiency
measures, we can start removing coal-fired power plants from the
grid, shutting them down at the end of their working life. The
blueprint lays out a step-by-step plan to retire 30 percent of the
world's power plants and replace them with a mix of clean energy
technologies and efficiency programs by 2020.
See the full global clean energy blueprint at:
www.greenpeace.org/energyrevolution
3. To address global warming and invigorate the economy,
taxpayers can no longer afford to underwrite the cost of dirty,
dangerous and prohibitively expensive technologies, like nuclear
and so-called "clean coal" (or carbon capture and storage). The
nuclear and coal lobbies have been using global warming as an
excuse to expand subsidies to their industries. But the latest
analysis from numerous sources show nuclear and clean coal are too
expensive, take too long to build, and face too many technical
challenges to address global warming in time to avoid the worst
impacts of the crisis. "Clean coal" in particular has never been
shown to work on even a pilot-scale project.
See Greenpeace's report, "False Hope: why carbon capture and
storage won't save the planet":
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/false-hope
See GAO Report: "CLIMATE CHANGE: Federal Actions Will Greatly
Affect the Viability of Carbon Capture and Storage As a Key
Mitigation Option": http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d081080.pdf
For a government analysis of the financial risk posed by nuclear
power see a report by the Congressional Budget Office:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/42xx/doc4206/s14.pdf
4. Bring the nation's power grid into the 21st century. Our
power grid is outmoded, overloaded, and unable to provide the
country the clean energy it needs now. A new report by the Apollo
Alliance estimates that we lose six to nine percent of all the
power that enters the grid at a cost of $20 billion annually.
Congestion and blackouts cost ratepayers an additional $79 billion
a year. The nation needs a modernized grid that efficiently
incorporates a renewable power supply. Modernizing the power grid
will not only make the economy more efficient, it will create
hundreds of thousands of high paying jobs.
The full Apollo Alliance report is available at:
http://apolloalliance.org/apollo-14/the-full-report/
5. Create a "forests for climate" fund. Healthy and expansive
forests serve as critical "carbon sinks" that turn carbon dioxide
pollution into oxygen. Because it will be very difficult if not
impossible for the U.S. to achieve the 34-46 percent reductions in
pollution called for by the world's leading scientists to avoid the
worst impacts of global warming, we will need to couple aggressive
cuts in domestic emissions with a financing program to help
developing nations reduce deforestation and adopt clean energy. It
is estimated that investments of $30-40 billion per year would
nearly end deforestation by 2015. The fund would stimulate the
economies of developing countries and ensure local populations do
not respond to the downturn by accelerating the present
overexploitation of their natural resources.
Greenpeace's forests for climate plan is available at:
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/TDERM.pdf
Making The Transition
Finally, in order to jumpstart a clean energy economy, the
government must not only create an environment where technological
innovation is rewarded, it must require polluters to pay for their
greenhouse gas emissions. Today, polluters dump carbon dioxide and
other gases into the atmosphere free of charge while the public
picks up the tab in the form of massive health costs, acid rain,
and global warming impacts. To move toward a clean economy, the
United States needs to implement a cap-and-trade system that
requires polluters to pay for their emissions. Polluters must be
required to buy 100 percent of all pollution permits at public
auctions managed by open and transparent bodies. Greenpeace
estimates that such an auction could generate $250 billion in the
United States annually. The revenues must be used for public
benefit, such as investments in renewable energy technology, grid
development, public transport infrastructure, forest preservation,
helping low and moderate income consumers with increased energy
costs and helping vulnerable communities adapt to unavoidable
climate impacts.
See Greenpeace USA's full global warming platform at:
http://us.greenpeace.org/site/DocServer/PHS_platform.pdf?docID=181
VVPR info: Mike Crocker, Media Officer, Greenpeace USA, 202-319-2471