What Is the Green New Deal?

The term "Green New Deal" has been used to describe policies that address climate change policies and investment in renewable energy. The United Nations (UN) announced a Global Green New Deal in 2008. Former President Obama added one to his platform when he ran for election in 2008, and Green Party candidates, such as Jill Stein and Howie Hawkins, did the same. 

In 2019, a Green New Deal was a congressional resolution introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts.

History of the Green New Deal

The term "Green New Deal" was first used by Pulitzer Prize-winner Thomas Friedman in January 2007. Friedman recognized a solution to climate change that would require money, effort, and upsetting the fossil fuel industry. Transitioning away from fossil fuels, he argued in a New York Times column, would require the government to raise prices, introduce higher energy standards, and undertake a massive industrial project to scale up green technology.

“The right rallying call is for a ‘Green New Deal,’” he wrote, referencing former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's domestic programs to rescue the country from the Great Depression. “If you have put a windmill in your yard or some solar panels on your roof, bless your heart. But we will only green the world when we change the very nature of the electricity grid—moving it away from dirty coal or oil to clean coal and renewables.”

Proposals 2019-2024

In 2019, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey introduced a 14-page nonbinding resolution in Congress calling for the federal government to create a Green New Deal. The resolution had over 100 co-sponsors in Congress and attracted several Democratic presidential candidates.According to the proposal, the U.S. and its historical contribution proved disproportionate greenhouse gas emissions.

On March 26, 2019, lawmakers in the Senate voted 57-0 against advancing the resolution, with 43 out of 47 Democrats voting "present" to avoid a formal position.The Green New Deal proposed to tackle the climate crisis with a 10-year mobilization and address an issue that 60% of Americans said already affected their local community. The deal promised to tackle economic inequality by creating high-quality union jobs and called for the protection of workers’ rights, community ownership, universal healthcare, and a job guarantee.

In April 2023, Senator Markey and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez reintroduced the Green New Deal Resolution, but the resolution has not yet passed as of 2024. However, since the Green New Deal was first introduced, supporters saw some federal investment to fight climate change included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Goals of the Green New Deal

The main goal of the plan is to bring U.S. greenhouse gas emissions down to net zero and meet 100% of power demand in the country through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources by 2030.The proposal calls for job creation, along with access to nature, clean air and water, healthy food, a sustainable environment, and community resiliency by:

• Providing investments and leveraging funding to help communities affected by climate change 
• Repairing and upgrading existing infrastructure to withstand extreme weather and ensuring all bills related to infrastructure in Congress address climate change
• Investing in renewable power sources
• Investing in manufacturing and industry to spur growth in the use of clean energy
• Building or upgrading to energy-efficient, distributed, and smart power grids that provide affordable electricity
• Upgrading all existing buildings and building new ones so that they achieve maximum energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability.
• Supporting family farming, investing in sustainable farming, and building a more sustainable and equitable food system
• Investing in transportation systems, namely zero-emission vehicle infrastructure and manufacturing, public transit, and high-speed rail
• Restoring ecosystems through land preservation, afforestation, and science-based projects 
• Cleaning up existing hazardous waste and abandoned sites
• Identifying unknown sources of pollution and emissions
• Working with the international community on solutions and helping them achieve Green New Deals
  
  

Climate Change

A common rebuttal to opponents from supporters of the Green New Deal is that although it will be expensive to implement, not doing so will be more expensive in the long run. To stop temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius—the target aimed for in the 2015 Paris Agreement—global emissions need to go to zero by 2050.

The federal government spent $450 billion due to extreme weather and fire events between 2005 and 2018, according to a 2018 report by the U.S. Government Accounting Office. In 2022, the U.S. experienced eighteen weather and climate disasters costing at least $1 billion. 

Climate change will cause more than $500 billion in economic loss in the United States alone each year by 2090, according to a 2019 study. Independent research shows that about 10% of the value of the global economy could be wiped out by 2050 if temperatures continue to rise by 3.2 degrees Celsius and the world doesn't meet the net-zero targets outlined by the Paris Agreement.

Supporters

Advocates of the Green New Deal who promote a heterodox macroeconomic framework called Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) believe the government should not be concerned about the cost. "The federal government can spend money on public priorities without raising revenue, and it won’t wreck the nation’s economy to do so," a group of prominent MMT supporters wrote in an op-ed for The Huffington Post.

The Green Party, whose plan also calls for America to move to 100% clean energy by 2030 and a job guarantee, says it will result in healthcare savings and military savings. The party's deal also advocates for a robust carbon fee program.Healthcare and other savings were also touted in a 2015 study by a group of scientists from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, that said the U.S. can replace 80% to 85% of the existing energy systems with ones powered entirely by wind, water, and sunlight by 2030 and 100% by 2050.

Critics

Critics call the Green New Deal socialist, extreme, or impractical. Some have warned that environmentalists "want to take away your hamburgers."The kind of overhaul the deal calls for would be expensive and require significant government intervention. The center-right American Action Forum pegs the maximum cost at $93 trillion, while Tax Policy Center senior fellow Howard Gleckman said the plan may slow the economy by adding to the debt and even drive jobs overseas.

"Instead of the Green New Deal, the federal government could adopt a revenue-neutral carbon tax to decrease emissions without exacerbating the fiscal imbalance," said Jeffrey Miron, director of economic studies at the right-wing Cato Institute.Edward B. Barbier, the American economics professor who wrote the report that formed the basis of the UN's Green New Deal, said that, instead of deficit funding, the government should use revenues from dismantled subsidies and environmental taxes.

The Bottom Line

The term "Green New Deal" is synonymous with policies that tackle climate change and boost investment in sustainable energy. The term was first used by Pulitzer Prize-winner Thomas Friedman in January 2007 and gained momentum in 2019 with a proposal from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey in Congress.