Recession won’t stop climate change

Andy Wimbush is nef‘s Communications Assistant and blogmaster.

If you hoped that the recession might buy us some time to combat climate change, you’re likely to be disappointed. That’s according to figures from the UK’s Committee for Climate Change which predict that even a serious fall in GDP would only deliver a fraction of emissions reductions. The Guardian has the full story here, including some perspectives from nef‘s Policy Director Andrew Simms. Andrew explains:

There’s a strong lockstep between GDP and emissions. You wouldn’t get more than a 1% change in emissions unless you had something really dramatic happening, like closing a whole industry down… Because of the recession, perversely, fuel prices have gone down a lot and that might cancel out some of the savings expected in that sector.

Of course, nef doesn’t expect back-to-business-as-usual to solve the climate crisis either. Take a look at some our most recent publications on the way out of recession and ecological mayhem:

• From the Ashes of the Crash: 20 first steps from new economics to rebuild a better economy
• A Green New Deal: Joined-up policies to solve the triple crunch of the credit crisis, climate change and high oil prices
• Triple Crunch: Joined-up solutions to financial chaos, oil decline and climate change to transform the economy

And if you haven’t already, be sure to read ‘Paradigm reclaimed‘, Stephen Spratt’s blog post about how to build a better banking system.