{"id":26850,"date":"2021-02-04T17:15:50","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T17:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/2021\/02\/victoria-australia-daniel-andrews-labor-greenwashing-green-new-deal\/"},"modified":"2021-02-04T17:15:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T17:15:50","slug":"the-victorian-green-new-deal-is-really-an-exercise-in-greenwashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/04\/the-victorian-green-new-deal-is-really-an-exercise-in-greenwashing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Victorian \u201cGreen New Deal\u201d Is Really an Exercise in Greenwashing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

At the end of 2020, Victoria\u2019s parliament passed a motion calling for a Green New Deal. But the plan drawn up by Australian Labor premier Daniel Andrews is market-driven and won\u2019t come close to achieving the kind of large-scale public transformation that we need to avert disaster.<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n \n
\n Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews speaks to the media on January 14, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. (Asanka Ratnayake \/ Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

In November 2020, Victoria\u2019s parliament became the first in Australia to endorse<\/a> a Green New Deal (GND). It was a sign of the times \u2014 as climate denial retreats toward the fringes, politicians of various ideological hues are adopting the rhetoric associated with radical GND proposals. Governments \u2014 and even some fossil fuel companies<\/a> \u2014 are repositioning themselves on climate change and renewables, as recession and stagnation<\/a> make economic stimulus policies more attractive.<\/p>\n

In the post-Corbyn, post-Sanders, and post-Trump era, the political terrain is rapidly shifting. These shifts will be disorienting if we aren\u2019t clear about the differences between decarbonization and greenwashing. Instead of cheering on measures that really amount to the transfer of public funds to private capital, we must push for investments in renewables that actually empower workers and citizens.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Greenwashing Versus Decarbonizing<\/h2>\n \n

Following a rousing speech<\/a> by Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam, the state parliament passed the party\u2019s GND motion on November 11 with the support of Victorian Labor. The motion called for the state budget to include significant investments<\/a> in publicly owned renewable energy and storage, public housing, recycling plants, and other green initiatives. It was a radical plan, with explicit commitments to public ownership, a focus on quality green jobs, and a \u201cbig build of new public housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than a fortnight later, Victoria premier Daniel Andrews handed down the Victorian budget. It earmarked $1.6 billion for investment in clean energy, centered around six \u201cRenewable Energy Zones,\u201d to be located across regional Victoria. Unlike the original GND motion, however, the budget said nothing about publicly owned renewable energy or storage projects.<\/p>\n

Instead, the zones are designed for \u201cunlocking<\/a> new renewable energy investment.\u201d Rather than build public utilities, the government will hold reverse auctions in which private firms underbid each other for publicly funded contracts.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the plan looks like a version of what Thea Riofrancos calls \u201cclimate-smart capitalism, using a mix of public funding and regulatory prodding to nudge investors toward green sectors.\u201d It\u2019s a form of greenwashing designed to use public money to socialize private risk for initial investments.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Victorian Labor has watered down the Victorian GND\u2019s bold calls for public housing into thin neoliberal gruel. Daniel Andrews couched his \u201cBig Housing Build\u201d in the deliberately ambiguous language of \u201csocial housing<\/a>\u201d (incorrectly labeled \u201cpublic housing\u201d by some media reports<\/a>). On closer inspection, however, the plan will likely result in a net loss of actual public housing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Progressive Neoliberalism<\/h2>\n \n

The standard tactic used by Daniel Andrews is to feint left while maintaining the ALP\u2019s decades-long commitment to privatization and market-based reforms on matters of substance. And when it comes to environmental policy<\/a>, his approach has always been weak. Meanwhile, the eagerness of the Victorian Greens to compromise on their GND may indicate they are angling for a ministry or a power-sharing arrangement with the Victorian ALP after the next election.<\/p>\n

Stories like this are increasingly familiar and likely to become more so in the coming decade. It\u2019s part of an emerging pattern in which center-left and even right-wing governments brand themselves as green while pursuing the same neoliberal economic policies.<\/p>\n

Consider British prime minister Boris Johnson\u2019s recent announcement<\/a> of a \u201cgreen industrial revolution\u201d \u2014 a plan that offers very little prospect for decarbonization and relies on unproven technologies such as carbon capture and storage, nuclear power, and hydrogen power. Despite the rhetoric, the Tory \u201cgreen industrial revolution\u201d is neither green nor revolutionary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, under Keir Starmer, the British Labour Party has borrowed GND terminology to sell a timid Green Economic Recovery. A significant retreat<\/a> from the party\u2019s ambitious \u00a3250 billion Corbyn-era package, it abandons<\/a> previous 2030 decarbonization targets and omits any mention of public ownership or a just transition for workers. Similarly, the European Green Deal has been almost terminally compromised, with fossil fuel lobbyists diluting<\/a> a green \u201csolution\u201d to a shade of grey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the United States, Joe Biden has just announced a raft of new executive orders on climate, creating a new White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy and shifting to a \u201cwhole-of-government\u201d approach. The announcement mixes GND-style language of \u201cenvironmental justice\u201d with noncommittal technocratic substance, including \u201crigorous reviews\u201d<\/a> of leasing practices and the need to \u201cidentify steps that can be taken\u201d toward renewables.<\/p>\n

Biden has also appointed fossil fuel allies<\/a> to senior government positions and is still refusing<\/a> to ban fracking. And there\u2019s good reason to be concerned about the announcement\u2019s \u201cnational security<\/a>\u201d framing. Biden\u2019s apparent shift away from Trump\u2019s destructive environmental agenda may be welcome, but it isn\u2019t yet time to celebrate. Rather, examples like these show the need for greater scrutiny of reforms and announcements that ape the rhetoric of the GND.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Let One Thousand GNDs Bloom<\/h2>\n \n

Even Scott Morrison, who once brandished a lump of coal in parliament<\/a>, has shifted his language<\/a>. These days, he talks<\/a> about net-zero emissions, while simultaneously touting a gas-led COVID-19 recovery<\/a>. Governments and corporations are coloring their marketing green as public opinion<\/a> moves in favor of decisive climate action.<\/p>\n

Major oil companies are also getting in on the act. Shell seems to be expanding<\/a> into the renewables market while BHP executives are now making noises<\/a> about decarbonization. A recent dramatic drop<\/a> in the price of renewables will accelerate this realignment.<\/p>\n

This is why vague talk about a green \u201ctransition\u201d can blur the distinction between an imminent renewables surge and the decarbonization that is necessary to halt global heating. The common assumption is that once renewables are adopted at scale, decarbonization will inevitably follow. Yet there\u2019s no historical precedent for something like this to happen.<\/p>\n

Previous changes in energy production \u2014 such as the moments when coal overtook wood in the nineteenth century or petroleum superseded coal in the twentieth \u2014 are better characterized as energy additions rather than transitions<\/a>. New sources were added to existing stock while<\/a> the use of established energy sources<\/a> continued to increase. Without state action to shut down dirty energy, we should be skeptical about the idea that growth in renewables will lead to a reduction in fossil fuel use.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s a mistake to think of the GND as a single political project, economic program, or set of policy prescriptions. Rather, there are many competing GNDs, reflecting the array of political and economic actors now participating in debates about climate and ecological crisis.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Anti-Capitalist Realism<\/h2>\n \n

This proliferation of symbolic green gesturing is a challenge for ecosocialists who must learn to distinguish between green branding and the radical changes that are really needed. If we buy into green illusions, it could detract from the urgency of mobilizing while leaving the power of capital over the environment unchecked.<\/p>\n

Indeed, ambiguities like this may have been a blind spot resulting from the broad politics and soaring rhetoric that are associated with the more radical, transformative GNDs.<\/p>\n

The market is a key driver of climate change and the only solution is rational, democratic planning \u2014 but this will cut into corporate profits. Even if it\u2019s possible to make money from some green technologies, competition will drive ecological destruction elsewhere \u2014 and exploitation everywhere. We are not all on the same side<\/a>,<\/u> and we never were.<\/p>\n

To liberals, socialism seems like an unrealistic goal. But the real utopianism is to think that gradualist half-measures will be anywhere near sufficient<\/a> to halt global heating at 1.5 or even 2\u00b0C. Realism means understanding that big polluters won\u2019t give up unrealized stranded assets without conflict. Only a confrontational social movement, building on workers\u2019 power<\/a> at the point of production, can win such a fight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, we will have to force a break with the extractive logic of commodity production<\/a> and build a planned, socialist economy. But ecosocialists should also reject the fatalistic assumption that steps toward decarbonization are impossible within capitalism. Radical action is both possible and necessary in the 2020s.<\/p>\n

Instead of subsidizing \u201cgreen\u201d industry with public money, comprehensive decarbonization will require a direct confrontation with fossil fuel and extractive capital. In other words, a GND is only as good as its class politics. In Australia, the urgency of the environmental crisis is already being used as a pretext to ramp up job insecurity<\/a> and unsafe working conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On a global scale, co-opted GNDs could easily dovetail with imperialism, as states guarantee corporations the ability to profitably extract rare earth metals<\/a> from the global South. In a similar fashion, neoliberal environmental policies like carbon credits could have disastrous consequences for Indigenous peoples<\/a>, as companies buy up land to claim offsets.<\/p>\n

An ecosocialist GND, on the other hand, could stand in solidarity with less developed countries while bolstering First Nations\u2019 sovereignty by funding land management, regeneration, and rewilding programs, under Indigenous control.<\/p>\n

Rather than constituting a static set of policies, the GND should be viewed as a high-stakes site of contestation. As the Climate Justice Collective has argued<\/a>, any successful GND must be founded on the \u201cfour Ds\u201d: decolonization<\/a>, decarbonization, decommodification, and democratization. Anything less may fail to halt climate change. Strengthening \u201cgreen\u201d capital will weaken our side politically, while intensifying the exploitation of the poor and vulnerable.<\/p>\n

For Victorians, it is crucial to keep holding Andrews and the ALP to account for their destructive environmental policies, including their recent renewal<\/a> of two dirty brown coal mines and return<\/a> to deforestation. We should also take aim at this latest attempt to subsidize private capital with public wealth.<\/p>\n

An effective GND will need more than parliamentary motions of sentiment, set-piece marches, mild policy tweaks, and center-left governments. It will require strikes, blockades<\/a>, occupations, and mass civil disobedience. As radical climate researchers Natasha Heenan and Anna Sturman have argued, a transformative GND \u201cneeds the full weight of a critique of capitalism behind it\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n

This post was originally published on Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In November 2020, Victoria\u2019s parliament became the first in Australia to endorse a Green New Deal (GND). It was a sign of the times \u2014 as climate denial retreats toward the fringes, politicians of various ideological hues are adopting the rhetoric associated with radical GND proposals. Governments \u2014 and even some fossil fuel companies \u2014 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1801,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1801"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26851,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26850\/revisions\/26851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}