Last week Green New Deal (GND) legislation was introduced in the US House and in the Senate.
It’s been hard to parse the basics from the bruhaha.
The GND is a nonbinding resolution. Unlike a bill, such a resolution merely expresses approval.
When and if the GND passes, other individual bills will also have to pass for any of the GND to become the law of the land.
In Boulder parlance, the GND sets the intention.
The GND lays out five overarching goals to be met within a 10-year time-frame. Some of these objectives are "green" and others are more "new deal" - aimed at generally restoring prosperity and equality:
1. Achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through fair and just transitions for communities and workers,
2. Create high-wage jobs and ensure prosperity and economic security,
3. Invest in infrastructure and industry to sustainably meet the challenges of the 21st century,
4. Secure for this generation and future generations: clean air and water; climate and community resiliency; healthy food; access to nature; and a sustainable environment, and
5. Promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, etc.
Passing the GND would help provide certainty about the government's commitment to addressing climate change - certainty that would certainly get even more investors on board.
Let's face it - we are already paying dearly for climate change induced calamity.
Natural disasters cost $350 billion in 2017. And what price-tag can we possibly put on the frogs, polar bears, bees, coral, penguins, etc. etc. whose populations are already dismally diminishing?
Maybe the question is can we afford not to get behind the GND?
Weekly Update, Week ending February 15 2019: The S&P 500 was up 2.56% even as the Dow Jones added 3.21%, the Russell 2000 increased 4.21% and the Nasdaq added 2.41%.
As for US bonds, they lost -9bps.
Globally, the MSCI World Index added 2.35% and the Barclays Global Aggregate Bond Index declined -23bps.
The Euro Stoxx 50 added 3.40% in local-currency (Euro) and 2.87% in USD. Meanwhile, the Topix was up 2.46% in local-currency (Yen) and 1.68% in USD.
