The major components proposed in the previous three chapters for the Global Green New Deal have been shaped by the four main crises that have afflicted the world in recent years: the current global recession, the fuel and food crises of the past several years, and the emerging water crisis. The GGND must also consider actions today that can address urgently the impending problems of global climate change, ecological degradation and extreme poverty.

Part II has been concerned with actions by national governments under a Global Green New Deal. These actions have focused on measures in two principal areas (reducing carbon dependency and ecological scarcity) and policies, investments and reforms that current evidence suggests that governments can enact fairly swiftly – i.e. in the next several years.

This chapter concludes part II by summarizing the main national actions that are essential for the success of the proposed GGND. Already one major economy has proposed public investments that accord with these proposals. In January 2009 South Korea announced a Green New Deal plan that adopts many of the national actions proposed for reducing carbon dependency and ecological scarcity. The plan involves spending US$36 billion over three years to create nearly a million jobs. The final section of this chapter describes the South Korean Green New Deal in more detail.

PROPOSED NATIONAL ACTIONS

As emphasized in part I, to be truly global, a GGND strategy must encompass the widespread adoption by national governments of fiscal measures and other policies in the short term that will expedite economic recovery and create jobs while being consistent with the medium-term objectives of reducing carbon dependence, environmental deterioration and extreme world poverty.