Report

Shifting Ownership for the Energy Transition in the Green New Deal: A Transatlantic Proposal

A UK-US coordination plan to bring big oil under public ownership and accelerate a transition away from fossil fuels.
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Report

Shifting Ownership for the Energy Transition in the Green New Deal: A Transatlantic Proposal

A UK-US coordination plan to bring big oil under public ownership and accelerate a transition away from fossil fuels.

Executive Summary

To put it bluntly: We are running out of time to solve the climate crisis. Years of solutions based upon technological fixes and market-driven mechanisms have proven too little and too easily strong-armed by fossil fuel and industry interests. With atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide passing 415 parts per million – unseen in human history – we need a dramatically different approach that quickly makes up for years of lost time. Doing so means challenging the underlying structures of our economy that have stopped climate action for so long: imperatives of growth, extractivism and corporate control. Anything less than radical will not allow us to deal with the urgency of climate crisis, nor create the lasting justice that we need.

The Green New Deal holds potential. With specific policies still at the ideas stage, the narrative surrounding the Green New Deal is one of sweeping action, huge government investment in public infrastructure, and repairing the historical harms of communities disproportionately affected by pollution and climate change. The plan’s massive ambition has lit the imagination of those in the United States and abroad. For countries in the global North like the United Kingdom and the US, historic centres of economic exploitation and carbon emissions, action at this scale is an international duty.

But how specifically does the Green New Deal unleash itself from the imperatives of our current political economy? How do we move from constant need for growth, resource (and often colonialist) extraction, and a politic firmly held by corporations, towards an economy based on democracy, justice and sustainability? One strategy is clear: shifting ownership structures at all levels.

This report covers three specific strategies to take on the transformation of the energy sector through public ownership in the US. In all three, there are clear cognates in the UK. First, we tackle the issue of fossil fuel extraction by prompting a federal buyout of the fossil fuel majors. Second, we discuss regional planning and enterprise that can shepherd a just transition for communities and workers in extractive zones as well as other sectors in need of decarbonization. Last, we investigate the potential of energy utility public ownership to kick out a fossilized energy system in favour of energy democracy.

Full Text
Shifting Ownership for the Energy Transition in the Green New Deal: A Transatlantic Proposal

Footnotes