green new deal

On 23 Juni 2017 Ralf Fücks was given an official farewell after being chairman of Heinrich Böll Foundation for over 20 years. With Sergey Lagodinsky and Eva van de Rakt he speaks about his history and political developments.

We find ourselves at a crossroads between environmental disaster and a new industrial revolution. Decoupling economic growth from environmental consumption is an ambitious goal, but also an achievable one. ‘Green Growth, Smart Growth’ by Ralf Fücks outlines a way forward in this great transformation, and does so in the conviction that the dangers posed by climate change can be overcome through a new approach to economics, innovation and proactive policymaking.

The report by the Green European Foundation gives an overview of the "recovery packages" introduced by governments around the globe and reveals that the European Union is lagging behind the United States and Asia in terms of the Green share of those recovery plans. The authors show the economic and employment potential of a Green New Deal and that the EU has the possibility of leading the way.The report takes a pragmatic approach in the sense that it focuses primarily on how to "green" immediate recovery activities in specific economic areas, and how to support the creation of framework conditions which initiate a dynamic for ecological modernisation and structural change. It also identifies key elements for the implementation of a Green New Deal. The report ends with a series of recommendations that urge the European Union and its Member States to focus their programmes on investments that will kick-start a Green economy and provide sustainable ways out of the crisis.