Following the very successful launch of GIMMS last week welcome to our second blog. The GIMMS team have been both delighted and excited by the response both on the day and subsequently. Despite a few technical hitches the event exceeded our expectations and it was pleasing to see so many people. The packed room and clear enthusiasm was our reward. We’d like to thank our speakers Professor Bill Mitchell and the chief leader writer for the Guardian, Randeep Ramesh, for their insightful contributions to the day’s success not to mention our guests whose animated conversations during breaks showed their passion for the subject and a desire to make a real difference.
We hope that the launch of GIMMS will prove to be an opportunity to start a real public conversation about how to create a society which puts public and social purpose at its heart.
Our weekly blog will aim to bring together the latest news and events analysed from an MMT perspective. Today it focuses on the IPPC report on climate. Don’t forget to bookmark us, like our FB page and follow us on Twitter for all the latest.
This week the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) released its comprehensive report on the state of the climate. Climate scientists are warning that we only have 12 years left to halt the worst effects of climate change and keep warming to a maximum of 1.5˚C. The planet is already 1˚C warmer than pre-industrial levels.
The evidence is stark, and the clock is ticking on the capacity of our natural world to support life. It is a wake-up call for humanity and our leaders need to react with urgency. Without a reduction in greenhouse gases the planet will face significant threats from drought, floods, extreme weather events, food and water shortages, rising sea levels and destruction of the natural environment. It will drive hundreds of millions of people into poverty and create further refugee crises.
In an age of endless consumption which keeps the economic wheels turning it is no surprise that our leaders have failed dismally to address adequately the very real and long-term global issues of climate collapse and it has been left for too long on the political backburner.
Do we still have time to change and prevent the worst effects of climate breakdown? Politicians must now open their eyes to the pressing challenges we face, and they need, crucially, to move beyond manifesto pledges to real action.
An understanding of monetary reality could prove a critical resource for politicians grappling to formulate an environmental strategy to deliver the fundamental change that is essential if we are to have half a chance of survival. A macroeconomic stability framework offers the possibility to develop practical solutions to the ecological challenges we face to deliver sustainable growth, a more equitable access to real resources by world citizens and support those nations who are already facing very real threats from climate change.
Governments with currency issuing powers already have a unique capacity to command and shape the profile of how national resources are used and allocated. This would be achievable through a combination of fiscal deficit investment in green technology alongside a more stringent legislative and tax framework to drive the vital behavioural change essential to addressing the life-threatening effects of climate change. In this way, and by moving the emphasis away from excessive consumption and its detrimental effects on the environment, governments could focus on the delivery of public and social purpose with more appropriate, fairer and efficient use of land, food and human capital in a sustainable way. The implementation of a Job Guarantee Programme could also play a pivotal role in reshaping our economy and making the necessary shift towards a greener and more sustainable future.
It is time to shift the narrative away from the ‘fake news’ fear of public debt and its hocus-pocus burden on future generations. The real threat to our grandchildren will come from depriving them of the life-sustaining benefits of our investment today. If we fail to make that transformation our children and grandchildren will most certainly face an uncertain future. Ultimately, the responsibility will lie with politicians to grasp the monetary realities and embrace the urgency of this task. It will require courage, creativity and determination by all of us from large corporations to individuals to achieve it.
Climate Devastation, Full Employment and GDP vs GPI – Drs Steven Hail and Phil Lawn
A Strategy for Developing Nations Caught in the Neoliberal Trap – Prof Fadhel Kaboub
Not much substance in this post. I had hoped for more. Perhaps the substance is all embodied in this excerpt.
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Governments with currency issuing powers already have a unique capacity to command and shape the profile of how national resources are used and allocated. This would be achievable through a combination of fiscal deficit investment in green technology alongside a more stringent legislative and tax framework to drive the vital behavioural change essential to addressing the life-threatening effects of climate change. In this way, and by moving the emphasis away from excessive consumption and its detrimental effects on the environment, governments could focus on the delivery of public and social purpose with more appropriate, fairer and efficient use of land, food and human capital in a sustainable way.
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Thank you for your comment. The MMT Lens is not an academic blog; rather it is a comment on the application of MMT to public purpose in the context of the week’s news.
We are aiming to serve different levels of interest throughout the site, as you may have noted. However, we have taken your comments on board and added two videos for those who want to find out more about sustainability and MMT.
An accessible blog, thank you for not over complicating and blowing my mind! Finding the right balance in presenting the climate change issues with economics so that non-academics can grasp the relationship is vital if change is going to happen, because the academic world will not succeed without bringing the populace on board…. as Dr Hail (?) said: the way to change things is for people to only vote for the parties that are fully committed to action on climate change.