A Green New Deal - Credit Crunch & Climate Crisis

A Green New Deal - The Way Forward - A Public Meeting organised by Greenspeak
Public meeting Monday 10 November 7.30 - 9.30pm £free
Calvary Church Hall
72 Viaduct Rd, Preston Circus, Brighton, BN1 4ND

www.greenspeak.org.uk

In association with the Green New Deal Group and Brighton & Hove Green Party present a public discussion

Green New Deal

Credit Crunch & Climate Crisis - The Way Forward

Speakers

* Caroline Lucas MEP Parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion Constituency and Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales

* Ann Pettifor Campaign Director, Operation Noah and former head of Jubliee 2000 debt relief campaign

* Larry Elliott Economics Editor, The Guardian, Colin Hines Co-Director, Finance For the Future

Chaired by Councillor Bill Randall

This month we are teaming up with Brighton & Hove Green Party and The Green New Deal Group, a collaboration between leading thinkers, whose authors include all of this event's speakers.

The local and global economy is facing a combination of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, accelerating climate change and soaring energy prices underpinned by encroaching peak oil. The Green New Deal Group, drawing inspiration from the tone of President Roosevelt’s comprehensive response to the Great Depression, propose a modernised version, a ‘Green New Deal’, joined up policies designed to power a renewables revolution, create thousands of green-collar jobs and rein in the distorting power of the finance sector while making more low-cost capital available for pressing priorities. Moreover, the movement has now gone global, with the UN now also demanding a Green New Deal for the global economy.

Bill Randall and Caroline Lucas are calling for Brighton to become a hub for ‘eco-businesses’ to create thousands of new jobs in the city. Dr Lucas says "We need a Green New Deal between government, business and ordinary families based on the ideas of ending our dependence on oil, cutting climate change emissions, creating thousands of new 'green' jobs and re-regulating the banking and fuel multi-nationals. Government should spend serious money helping those who need it most - the 37 per cent of central Brighton children living in poverty, for example, or the thousands of the frail and elderly facing a choice between heating their homes and eating nutritious food this winter - not the fat-cat bankers who got us in to the mess in the first place."

What do you think?

See you there?

Notes to editors:

Please note the different venue. There will not be food & drinks available at this event. Contact us for mailing list - monthly announcements with community news, links and further reading. martin@greenspeak.org.uk / 07891 571739

Greenspeak is organised in association with Brighton & Hove Green Party, aiming to stimulate discussion and engagement around the issues. www.brightonandhovegreenparty.org.uk / 01273 766670 (promoted by Nigel Tart on behalf of B&H Green Party, 39-41 Surrey St, Brighton BN1 3PB).
Green Party Logo

Further info around the subject
37% of children in Brighton Pavillion ward (central) are living in poverty – from Campaign to End Child Poverty, see BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7644155.stm

The Green New Deal – a report published by New Economics Foundation, download here for free or to see summary.

United Nations Environment Programme report, calling for a Global Green New Deal and links here

Ann Pettifor 'Economies of Scale' - Tame the market and start a new global trading system – Guardian 21 Oct 08 - For more on her work, see www.operationnoah.org

More on Larry Elliott, including articles – here

Colin Hines 'Local Authority Bonds - A Return To Ethical Investment' - Guardian 02 Oct 08

More on what Caroline Lucas has been getting up to: www.carolinelucas4pavilion.co.uk / Facebook

WWF 2008 Living Planet Report: Planet faces an ecological ‘credit crunch’. Demand for resources now exceeds the planet's capacity to replenish its ‘natural capital’ by about 30%. If global consumption continues at the same rate, by the mid-2030s we will need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles.

Green Party policy:

M Scott Cato & previous Greenspeak guest speaker Martin Large, Ecologist article 'An End To Monopoly Money' – local currencies and creating common wealth - here

Transition Brighton & Hove Business & Economics Group – next meeting Wed 12 Nov 6.30-8.00pm, Suite 4, Brighton Media Centre, 68 Middle St, Brighton - link to group page here

The next Brighton & Hove Green Party Action Day is Saturday 6th Dec – your chance to donate a little time with low commitment, to helping Brighton elect the country's first Green MP.

[ENDS]