The Real Green New Deal
A Jill Stein Administration will advance the ecosocialist Real Green New Deal that the Green Party made its signature issue in the 2010s.
It is imperative to distinguish the Real Green New Deal from the nonbinding “Green New Deal” resolution proposed in recent years. For instance, the nonbinding “Green New Deal” does not call for a ban on fracking or a prohibition of new fossil fuel infrastructure. Moreover, the inadequacy of the nonbinding “Green New Deal” to address climate and ecological crisis is further demonstrated by the following:
- Extends the timeline for zero emissions by 15-20 years to 2050
- Redefines zero emissions to “net zero” to enable the continued burning of fossil fuels with false climate solutions like carbon capture and sequestration and direct air capture
- Replaces tenet of democratic public ownership and planning in the energy, transportation, manufacturing, and housing sectors with unreliable market-based incentives featuring public subsidies for private corporations
- Does not stipulate the phase-out of nuclear power - a scam which is dirty, dangerous, unaffordable, uninsurable and has no solution to the problem of toxic nuclear waste
- No mention of the need for deep cuts in military spending and operations to help pay for the Green New Deal and slash emissions in the process
In short, we need the economic democracy of an ecosocialist Real Green New Deal to plan and coordinate the complicated transition to 100% clean energy and zero emissions on the rapid timescale required to save our climate. An ecosocialist approach is also necessary to fairly compensate and center people - primarily, Black, Indigenous, and the poor, who were systematically excluded from the original New Deal - as well as redress the lasting impacts of profoundly racist policies that derived from it including, but not limited to, redlining - which acted as a catalyst for the legacy of environmental racism.