Statement from the Commissioners

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We are in a moment of peril for progressive climate action. In Washington, a revanchist carbon coalition is brutally dismantling the turn towards green investment and planning initiated by the Biden Administration. A Labour government in Britain, meanwhile, is at a crossroads; its ambitious transition targets threatened by rising costs and a stagnant economy. Across Europe, uneven but real progress is threatened by a populist right that promises to row back on decarbonization efforts as an illusory solution to the cost of living crisis. Globally, despite the world-historic productive force of  China’s green state developmentalism, the green transition remains dangerously off course.

It is, however, also a time of renewal, well suited to the rethinking of dominant  political and policy paradigms. We have an opportunity and responsibility to develop a program that can defeat forces of reaction, deliver a just transition, traverse a fraught geopolitical context, rebuild state capacity, and ensure economic security and affordability for working people.

That is why, as a collective, we are thrilled to join Common Wealth’s Green Planning Commission. Brought together in the spirit of generous enquiry and generative critique, we are excited to contribute over the next two years towards the necessary rethinking of the scope and role for public coordination and democratic planning in the building out of a green, equitable, and prosperous future. 

While we may not always agree on every detail, the shared task of developing a programme for building a democratic and decarbonized future is as necessary as it is demanding — and we are excited contribute to that collective effort, by strengthening the case and coalition for change.

The Green Planning Commissioners