All Economic Policy Is Climate Policy: Tools for a Post-Neoliberal Green Transition

All Economic Policy Is Climate Policy: Tools for a Post-Neoliberal Green Transition

Roosevelt Institute launches new climate series; first brief argues that to fight inflation we need rapid and robust public investment in the renewable sector

Cascading climate disasters and overreliance on unstable energy sources now pose a persistent and regular threat to the markets. As policymakers seek new ways to boost the economy and tackle the growing climate crisis, they must enact policies that actively work to minimize corporate power while building public institutions that can help execute a rapid transition away from fossil fuels.

To help policymakers understand the connection between climate and economic policy today, the Roosevelt Institute launched the climate series, “All Economic Policy Is Climate Policy: Tools for a Post-Neoliberal Green Transition,” to demonstrate the kind of action it will take to dismantle failed neoliberal policies and paradigms and deploy public power to execute a sufficiently rapid, comprehensive and just response to the climate crisis. 

To be released over five weeks, the series kicks off with “Energy Price Stability: The Peril of Fossil Fuels and the Promise of Renewables,” which argues that a transition away from fossil fuel sources toward renewable energy will have a stabilizing effect on energy prices and the economy as whole. Renewables are inherently stable and will bring the majority of our energy consumption into the already stable, regulated electricity sector. Co-authored by Lauren Melodia, deputy director of macroeconomic analysis and Kristina Karlsson, climate and economic transformation program manager, the paper further finds that a transition to renewable energy can improve existing inequities in energy burdens among renters, low-income households, and Black and Latinx households. 

Additional series topics will include:

• Supply Chains: Even the 19 supply chain reports recently issued by seven federal agencies demonstrate that there is no corner of our economy that will remain untouched by the climate crisis and, conversely, no part of our economy that should not be harnessed to help mitigate the crisis (authored by Todd N. Tucker, director of industrial policy and trade).
• Shareholder Primacy: Deference to shareholders’ short-term interests has served as an excuse for companies to resist investing in clean energy technologies that would serve the broader public (authored by Niko Lusiani, director of corporate power). 
• Just Transition: Workforce development policy can be a vehicle for a just transition, particularly if government policy can place guardrails to increase worker power as investments are made (authored by Alí Bustamante, deputy director of worker power and economic security).
• Tax credits: Incentivizing clean energy technologies has been relatively effective in expanding the footprint of clean energy in our economy, but this approach is fraught with equity issues in terms of who has access to clean energy and who is benefiting from the climate transition (co-authored by Lew Daly, deputy director of climate policy, and Sylvia Chi, senior strategist at Just Solutions Collective).

Insight on the new climate series:

“The climate crisis is critical context for all of the Roosevelt Institute’s work across our five program areas. Whether considering outsized corporate power, industrial policy, labor rights, civil rights, or macroeconomic policies, the climate crisis dictates both what is necessary and what is possible,” said Suzanne Kahn, managing director of research and policy.

“The climate crisis is not news. Yet, despite widespread agreement about the importance of action on the crisis, lawmakers have shown a notable lack of urgency in moving a progressive climate agenda forward. In launching these issue briefs, we’re making clear that all economic policy is climate policy, and that there are smart policies we can enact now that don’t take a market-driven approach,” said Rhiana Gunn-Wright, director of climate policy.

You can learn more about the Roosevelt Institute’s Climate and Economic Transformation program here.