All this ‘green revolution’ looks to me to be little more than the next car on the .gov gravy train.<\/p>\n
The Conversation: \u201cInternational Momentum\u201d and Green Jobs will Persuade Republicans to Back Biden\u2019s Green New Deal<\/a><\/p>\n Guest essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n Two British Political Science professors expect Republicans to resist the inevitability of our green future, at least at first, but they believe the rise of green jobs and \u201cinternational momentum\u201d will convince Republicans to back Joe Biden\u2019s Green New Deal.<\/p>\n Climate change: Joe Biden could ride a wave of international momentum to break deadlock in\u00a0US<\/strong><\/p>\n November 11, 2020 3.12am AEDT<\/p>\n Richard Beardsworth<\/a> Olaf Corry<\/a> Joe Biden\u2019s presidency is likely to be dominated by \u201cthe three Cs\u201d: COVID-19, China and climate change. Each one of these behemoths could make or break him.<\/p>\n Despite wildfires and hurricanes, this\u00a0was not<\/a>\u00a0the long-awaited\u00a0climate election<\/a>. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris campaigned on the promise of a two trillion dollar investment over the next four years. This aims to put the US on course to a carbon-free electricity sector by 2035 and carbon neutrality \u2013 meaning, the country\u2019s net carbon emissions would reach zero \u2013 by 2050.\u00a0Their climate plan<\/a>\u00a0linked aggressive emissions reductions to social and environmental justice measures\u00a0beyond<\/a>\u00a0compensation for workers and communities embedded in high-carbon industries like coal mining. It was forged in collaboration with the Bernie Sanders campaign and supporters of a\u00a0Green New Deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The bad news is that Biden\u2019s ability to implement such a transformative domestic agenda appears to be severely limited. Any\u00a0big spending plans are likely to be stymied by the Senate\u00a0which, even following\u00a0run-off races in January<\/a>, can at best end up a 50-50 partisan split, with Harris as the tiebreaker. Even \u201cmoderate\u201d Republicans\u00a0like Mitt Romney<\/a>\u00a0have pledged to \u201cmake sure that we conservatives keep on fighting to make sure we don\u2019t have a Green New Deal [and] we don\u2019t get rid of gas and coal and oil\u201d.<\/p>\n But\u00a0if Biden can link action on climate to economic regeneration, jobs, environmental justice, and a proactive foreign policy with both China and Europe, he could yet fulfil both his domestic and international agendas.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n Read more:\u00a0https:\/\/theconversation.com\/climate-change-joe-biden-could-ride-a-wave-of-international-momentum-to-break-deadlock-in-us-149121<\/a><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I think where the professors have gone wrong is they genuinely seem believe the Green New Deal is an economically viable option, which after a few trillion dollars investment will become a self sustaining economic system.<\/p>\n In my opinion this represents\u00a0a complete denial of engineering and economic reality<\/a>.<\/p>\n If a business is not competitive when backed with a billion dollars of government cash, how is upping the investment to a trillion dollars supposed to help?<\/strong><\/p>\n After all the subsidies and political support renewables have received over the decades, if there was any hope for the economic viability of renewables with anything resembling current technology, they would long since have outgrown the need for special government assistance.<\/strong><\/p>\n To put it another way, that dead horse is not going to jump up and gallop under its own steam, no matter how hard politicians flog it with taxpayer\u2019s money.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All this ‘green revolution’ looks to me to be little more than the next car on the .gov gravy train. The Conversation: \u201cInternational Momentum\u201d and Green Jobs will Persuade Republicans to Back Biden\u2019s Green New Deal Guest essay by Eric Worrall Two British Political Science professors expect Republicans to resist the inevitability of our green … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-econuts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61680,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61679\/revisions\/61680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nProfessor of International Politics, University of Leeds<\/p>\n
\nProfessor of Global Security Challenges, University of Leeds<\/p>\n