The Green New Deal is a framework for a government agenda that pumps robust investments into building a cleaner, fairer world by tackling the biggest challenges of the century: climate change, economic insecurity, racial injustices.
It does this by taking our country back from the corrupt forces that have governed for decades and transforming the fabric of our society to be community led, sustainably powered, and justly funded.
By investing in people and communities rather than corporate profits, it will create millions of good-paying jobs – jobs doing all the hard work necessary to avert the climate crisis – and ensuring that the fruits of that labor build a better society and a better future for us all.
From freak winter storms in Texas that leave millions without electricity to skyrocketing housing costs, people all across the country are facing overlapping crises that are compromising the safety and health of our planet and its people. These crises are daunting, huge in scale and compounding on top of each other, leaving many people in despair on how to create the change we so desperately need.
Enter the Green New Deal.
An Intersection of Crises
The climate crisis isn’t the only crisis bubbling to the surface in the 21st century.
Two economy-shattering recessions in the last 15 years have cost millions of families their jobs and homes. Meanwhile, wages have stagnated for decades, leaving working families struggling to get by.
The cost of housing - whether renting or buying - continues to rise.
Decades of disinvestment and active plundering is leaving an aging populace increasingly without a safe retirement or the necessary care workers, as the American healthcare system lags dramatically behind other nations of similar wealth.
Across the US, hard-fought racial justice victories are being rolled back by an emboldened right wing fascist political party, intent on enforcing permanent unrepresentative rule through gerrymandering and voter suppression.
Our present society doesn’t work for everyday people. It works great if you’re a billionaire or a corporation, but for millions of working class families, or for communities of color? Not so much.
A Green New Deal doesn’t ignore those crises, it takes the massive investment necessary to avert the climate crisis and ensures that investment is made in a way that makes our world better, rather than reinforcing our existing problems.
Although, really, it’s the other way around. Our physical and social infrastructure is crumbling, and with it, the social contract of America. We are direly in need of government investments in our physical and social structure. So why not make those investments in a way that builds a cleaner, more sustainable future?
The Fruits of a Green New Deal
Averting the Climate Crisis: A Green New Deal would mark an aggressive investment in a swift transition to a clean energy economy, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions in line with the recommendations of the IPCC, and preventing all-out climate catastrophe.
Clean Communities: A Green New Deal would create cleaner communities for our families, by eliminating — and cleaning up after — the fossil fuel economy. We all would benefit from a cleaner, less polluted world, but especially the working class families and communities of color who are forced to bear the bulk of fossil fuel pollution.
Lower Energy Costs: We are already seeing the benefits of solar and wind energy throughout America: cheaper energy bills. Our utility companies are often run for profits, and see these lower costs as a problem. But is a future of clean, cheap energy really a problem? Of course not.
Millions of Good-Paying Jobs: None of this will happen just because we snap our fingers. It’s going to take hard work across all sectors of society. By compensating that work well, by ensuring that its benefits reach all communities, especially ones historically underinvested in, we can create a new economy, one that works for all people, not just a handful of billionaires.
Sectors of the Green New Deal
The Green New Deal is not a singular bill, but a dedication to addressing each and every aspect of society that relies on the fossil fuel economy in a just and human-focused way.
Here are some core areas a Green New Deal would impact (more to be added over time):