On the Anti-Austerity Green New Deal

Abstract

In the context of growing inequality and poverty caused by neoliberalism and of the climate crisis, a cascade of proposals for an anti-austerity Green New Deal, the radical integration of environmental and economic policies, has been made in the United States and Europe since 2018. According to these proposals, huge investments for transitioning into zero carbon society should be made much earlier than suggested by conventional proposals, paying attention to the fair transition of employment and to the redress of any injustice regarding wealth, race, gender, generation, etc. In addition, based on anti-austerity economic theories, the investment should not mainly be financed through tax increases, but by mobilizing huge private resources such as pension funds, and, in countries with monetary sovereignty, also via deficit spending.