The Future Potential For A Green Deal

There are technical problems in running this site and the paragraphs have had to be separated via sets of dots.............................................................. On Sunday the Dronfield Labour Party Discussion Group held a talk and debate via Zoom. The following is a report of the event by Rosie Smith, the Group's Secretary..................... The speaker was Dr Jonathan Perraton from the University of Sheffield Economic's Department, who addressed us on the future potential for a Green New Deal. He gave a comprehensive overview of challenges involved in carbon reduction............................ He told the meeting that it is unlikely that the UK will meet its carbon reduction targets for 2050. There have been reductions in carbon emissions to date, but a lot of low-hanging fruit, easy ways to reduce carbon emissions have been done now. The projected reductions will soon level out, and will not fall sufficiently by 2050 without more radical action....................................................................................... He proposed reinvestment in green infrastructure projects and jobs creation. he noted that Labour's Green New Deal and the similar GND in America both emphasised the creation of high skilled green jobs. He noted as an economist that investment in infrastructure and jobs brought benefits to the government and GDP as people pay taxes on their wages and spend their wages in the economy.................................................................. He noted that government has significant capacity for borrowing. Current interest rates are incredibly low and government borrowing at this level will become comparatively smaller over time as GDP increases (even at current low rates of increase in GDP). In addition to this, borrowing from UK financial sector carries little risk, as the British State will 'exist forever' and therefore lenders need not worry about default. He also advocated for quantitative easing because the state then only owes money to itself...................................................................................... He noted that the coronavirus crisis has shown that states can act in an emergency. They have been shown to place a lot more value on human lives that the financial markets would have predicted (even in the UK with its abysmal death toll).................................. In the discussion John Halstead asked an economic question about government borrowing. Whilst Martin Lawton argued that borrowing is not necessarily needed - money from the defence budget could be reallocated to Green policies. This point was widely supported by the meeting.................................................................................. Roland Lovatt and myself asked about nuclear power. I was very surprised to see a commitment to nuclear power in the 2019 Labour manifesto. Both Corbyn and myself are members of CND and I was alarmed that this had made it into the manifesto. The speaker said that he wasn't in favour of nuclear power but thought it was probably inevitable that it would be used to provide green energy in the short term. He did say that improvements in battery capacity and wind and solar power becoming cheaper may provide an alternative in the future....................................................................................... We had a good discussion where other points were pursued.