I mentioned at the weekend that the FT had endorsed the logic of Green QE in an editorial, suggesting it should be the basis for European recovery as well as the delivery of what might, in effect, be a European Green New Deal.
Today, my Green New Deal colleague, Caroline Lucas MP, has a letter in the FT in response to this, saying:
Green QE can apply to the Bank of England too
From Caroline Lucas MP, House of Commons, UK
Your editorial's call for the EU's European Investment Bank to print bonds that the European Central Bank could then buy to fund green energy and infrastructure is equally applicable to the Bank of England (“The ECB is attempting to step ahead of events”, March 9). The UK Green New Deal group has been calling for just such a green quantitative easing programme for some years, and BoE governor Mark Carney, in response to a letter, stated that if the government agreed then it could expand the range of assets it purchases. The BoE could then purchase new debt issued in the form of green bonds by a national investment bank to fund energy efficiency in all buildings, renewables and local transport systems.
This UK Green New Deal would provide jobs in every constituency, invest in precisely those communities that have been hollowed out by years of deindustrialisation and austerity, and – crucially – provide an example of how to dramatically reduce carbon emissions for a world increasingly waking up to the urgent imperative to tackle the accelerating climate crisis.
Caroline Lucas MP
Green party, Brighton Pavilion,
House of Commons, UK
Former Co-leader, Green party
Unsurprisingly, I wholeheartedly agree.
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Has the BoE replied at all?
Or is that a stupid question?
No
In both cases
If the Financial Times, ECB & BOE are finally waking up to the climate crisis and prepared to enact a Green New Deals then there is hope. The question is whether these neo-liberal dinasaurs will finally wake up to both the climate and financial catastrophes that awaits us unless urgent action is taken on a national, European and global scale. Fingers crossed.
Extinction Rebellion protest in London for week of April 15th – culminating in final day on Sat 20th – time to take a stand, we cannot go on pretending all is well.
I can’t see why we have a government that fails to see that Green New Deal is not just a matter of tackling climate change threat it is an eminently sensible means of getting some real and useful economic activity going. Are they totally blind to the stupidity of relying on a zero-sum financial industry to pillage our way to prosperity ?
Of course it doesn’t help that we have a polity which pretends that money is a natural resource and ignores the fact that employment stats completely fail to recognise the extent to which we are squandering one of our (and every nation’s) principle real natural resources, it’s population as a labour force.
Caroline Lucas has consistently said many things on many topics which are basically sound and she might aswell be at home talking to the cat it seems. 🙁 I don’t know where she draws the inner strength to keep on going, but I hope it lasts a long time yet.
I’m pleased to have Caroline as a friend
I think she’s like me: she wakes up angry every morning