A group of global politicians on Monday launched the Global Alliance for a Green New Deal to advance "the creation of a greener, fairer world where all people and the planet can flourish."
With founding members including U.S. Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Joenia Wapichan, Brazil's first Indigenous congresswoman, the alliance of 21 politicians spanning all inhabited continents is focused on a truly transformative Covid-19 recovery and is calling on fellow lawmakers to help make their vision a reality.
"This is our moonshot moment, but this time it's about making a better life here on Earth."
The formal launch of the alliance, which can be seen here beginning at 2pm EST, follows the G7's June summit, which alliance members, and the global progressive movement more broadly, said failed to emerge with a sufficiently bold response to the climate crisis.
Monday's launch comes ahead of the November COP26 climate summit, but the months leading up to that Glasgow meeting, the alliance stresses, mustn't be a time of inaction.
"We don't have to wait for international agreements on the climate and nature crises," the alliance states. "Change can happen now."
Hence the push for a global Green New Deal, which the alliance frames as "an interlinked package of policy measures" to overhaul "the way we travel, grow the food we eat, warm our homes, and power our lives," all while "reversing corrosive inequality."
"As lawmakers we pledge to do everything we can to advance a transformative Green New Deal, where we are and globally," the website for the alliance reads. "As the alliance gets underway, we will establish an advisory group drawn from members of civil society working for a Green New Deal around the world."
Rep. Omar, in a statement ahead of the launch, put the new alliance in the context of the extreme weather events currently affecting various parts of the world.
"Climate change is here and it is an existential threat to humanity," she said.
"We have already seen the horrifying repercussions of failing to act--wildfires raging across the West Coast, extreme hurricanes, heatwaves in Australia, and massive flooding around the world. Natural disasters like these will only get worse unless we act as a global community to counteract this devastation," said Omar, touting the alliance as a means to "bring transformative change to our international climate response."
Movements for a Green New Deal have emerged across the globe, including bills put forth in countries including the U.S. and South Korea. However, the alliance states, "None of these have yet resulted in a transformative package of policies that are simultaneously socially just and ecologically sufficient, despite significant advances. We will work to change that."
The alliance is calling on other lawmakers to sign on to a "Declaration for a Green New Deal" centered on five pillars that encompass financial and political systems, environmental and climate justice, and energy industries.
By signing the declaration, politicians commit to working for a Green New Deal that:
- Builds an economy that delivers wellbeing for all of us;
- Protects and enhances the Earth we share;
- Creates a caring low-carbon society;
- Shapes a fair multilateral system fit for the 21st Century; and
- Secures environmental and racial justice, shaping a truly democratic future in which everyone has a role to play.
For UK Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, who introduced the first Green New Deal Bill to parliament and is a founding member of the alliance, global policymakers must seize the opportunity to chart a new course.
"Pledges and targets will not avert catastrophic climate change--ambitious action will, but it's been perilously absent. The world is running out of time and out of excuses," she said in a statement ahead of the alliance's launch.
"A Green New Deal wouldn't only avert the worst of the climate and nature crises," she said. "It would make everyday life better for the vast majority of people wherever they live in the world."
"This is our moonshot moment, but this time it's about making a better life here on Earth," said Lucas, "and the only way we can do that is by working together as never before."
