#1 The Green New Deal by Jeremy Rifkin
This is my first publication in Medium. I’ve decided to share my readings by trying to give you few take aways. I’m mostly interested in inspiring people (like entrepreneurs and remarkable women), economy, digital technologies and the entertainment industry (with a large part of music due to my job). I hope you will enjoy this new journey together :-)
- What’s the Green New Deal ?
We are already in the heart of the 3rd industrial revolution. Each revolution corresponds to a new infrastructure. The 3rd one is a combination of Internet communication, electricity provided by solar and wind energies, digital logistic and mobility.
The Green New Deal is a new green, smart, low-carbon economy.
Some characteristics: collaborative economy, marginal cost close to zero, access rather than ownership, etc.
The goal ? Global warming must stay under 1,5 degrees. It is all about saving our civilisation.
2. Who are the Green New Deal leaders ?
It is surprising but China is much more involved than the other countries.
Since 2012, China ‘s constitution has included the concept of “Ecologic civilisation”. China is the first provider of solar and wind energy technologies.
The European commission has set the goal to eliminate carbon emissions before 2050.
In Europe, governments through incentives have been successful in accelerating the development of green energies. As a result, today the fix cost of green energies is already lower than gaz and carbon. Companies were encouraged to improve the efficiency of those technologies.
In March 2019, Norwey, first West European oil producer, decided to sell its shares on oil & gaz companies. That’s a strong signal.
The USA is still far away from this 3rd industrial revolution but the new generation makes things happen. Maybe the presidential election in 2020 will bring a new dynamic.
3. The Carbon Bubble threat
Now 14% of the electricity in Europe come from green energies. That’s also the moment where the fossil fuels industries are going to collapse. The result will be trillion dollars of blocked assets that remains us the 2017 financial crisis.
In 2015, Citigroup announced 100 trillion dollars in blocked assets.
According to Rifkin, it will lead to the end of the fossil civilisation.
Even the World Bank encourages countries which depend on carbon energies to diversify their investments. American pension fund, with its $41,3 trillion investment capital, started to encourage the disinvestment in fossil energies.
4. What is at stake ? The main issues ?
This revolution raises a number of questions.
Most of the industries are concerned about the green revolution like agriculture, real estate.. and we must train people in this new world.
One of the main question is the governance. Which role for the State and for the private sector (and the GAFA!) ? Rifkin argues for a more distributed and decentralized economy which could be helped by the blockchain technology.
The danger is that the new infrastructure could be exposed to cyber attacks and natural disasters.
Finally the cost to implement it is very expensive. So we have to find how to finance it. Rifkin recommends some ways to achieve this goal. 3% of the public budgets should be dedicated to build the infrastructure. He proposes a new partnership between private and public with a new business model (ESCO). Solutions already exist. He reminds us, for example, that the Pentagone budget is much more expensive than the cost of the new infrastructure in USA.
Rifkin delivers an optimistic and empowering vision of our civilisation. It is not too late to become a Green civilisation !
If you want to know more (i hope so ;)), click here to buy and read the book.
See you soon !
Xoxo
Tacha