Green Economy

Why the Oil Barons Can’t Survive a Green New Deal

Stephen Richard — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 12:36:29 +0000

Why the Oil Barons Can’t Survive a Green New Deal

Primary Author or Creator

Craig Dalzell

Stephen Richard Mon, 11/15/2021 - 12:36

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Date Published

Thu, 11/11/2021 - 12:00

Category

Green economy

Type of Resource

Article

Fast Facts

The alternatives to oil are already apparent. The transition to a green economy will remove the demand for almost all oil based products.

More details

Will oil and gas extraction still be a thing at all in a Green New Deal world? I think I’ve shown here that it needn’t be at all. But even in the much more limited “Net Zero” world, the oil barons lose a huge amount of their power and influence.

There is precedence for that kind of economic phase-shift. The early 20th century saw the development of the automobile and signalled the end of the Age of the Horse. Untold numbers of people working in the “Horse Sector” from farriers to livery yards lost their jobs. In 1900, a photo was taken of 5th Avenue in New York, USA. In the traffic there are multiple horse drawn carts and only one car. By 1913, the same street was photographed with multiple cars and only one horse drawn cart. The US A ’s horse population peaked in 1915 and has declined by about 85% in the time since – coincidently roughly the same amount that the oil industry could decline even if all we do is eliminate it as a fuel. Horses still exist, but the industry is now very different from the one that dominated overland transport for millennia before that peak.

So to those who still want to get their hands on “Scotland’s Oil” I want to ask: What does the Scottish oil and gas sector actually look like if we shift the world such that the vast majority of its customers no longer exist? Will the North Sea be economically viable even in the most limited sense if that happens? If we try to keep it pumping, will we lose our economic edge to those countries – like Sweden – who are pushing oil out of even the most intensive “other” uses of oil? The oil barons of the 20th century are on the edge of going the way of the horse barons of the 19th. The choice for Scotland is whether we let them go…or we let them pull us over with them?

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/oil-barons-cant-survive/

Keywords

Oil

Green Economy

Green new deal

Language English

Scottish independence: could wind power Scotland back into the EU?

Stephen Richard — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 18:29:35 +0000

Scottish independence: could wind power Scotland back into the EU?

Primary Author or Creator

Piotr Marek Jaworski

Stephen Richard Tue, 10/12/2021 - 19:29

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Kenny Crossan, The Conversation

Date Published

Fri, 03/26/2021 - 12:00

Category

Green economy

Independence

Type of Resource

News Media

Fast Facts

Scotland’s competitive advantage in green energy ought to be an important part of the economic case for independence when the second referendum takes place.

Resource Address (URL)

https://theconversation.com/scottish-independence-could-wind-power-scotland-bac…

Keywords

Renewable Energy

Green Economy

Independence referendum

Language English

What Does Good Green Infrastructure Planning Policy Look Like? Developing and Testing a Policy Assessment Tool Within Central Scotland UK

Stephen Richard — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 16:39:20 +0000

What Does Good Green Infrastructure Planning Policy Look Like? Developing and Testing a Policy Assessment Tool Within Central Scotland UK

Primary Author or Creator

Max Hislop

Stephen Richard Sun, 09/26/2021 - 17:39

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Alister J. Scott, Alastair Corbett

Date Published

Fri, 11/01/2019 - 12:00

Category

Economy

Type of Resource

Academic Paper

Fast Facts

the best performing policies were captured and adapted to inform a suite of model policies with global application. Significantly, the policies champion the different functions performed by GI and stress the need for early and ongoing involvement throughout any development process with funding for long-term stewardship post-development.

More details

This paper develops and tests a new self-assessment policy tool that illuminates the quality of planning policy for green infrastructure (GI). Working with 19 local planning authorities within the UK Central Scotland Green Network area (CSGN), the multi-functional coverage and strength of GI policies in statutory development plans were assessed. The tool was built from fusing two existing but unrelated initiatives addressing GI standards; Building with Nature and Integrating Green Infrastructure (IGI). The results reveal surprising variation across the functional coverage of GI-related policy and strength of associated policy wording, suggesting a significant vulnerability for how GI is mainstreamed in decision-making processes. To address this knowledge exchange deficit, the best performing policies were captured and adapted to inform a suite of model policies with global application. Significantly, the policies champion the different functions performed by GI and stress the need for early and ongoing involvement throughout any development process with funding for long-term stewardship post-development. The results serve as a catalyst for improved dialogue and social learning across planning, and wider built/natural environment teams and professions to plug identified policy gaps. In particular, there is recognition of the need for planning policy responses to move outside their usual environmental remit and engage with other policy sectors using more holistic policy hooks such as placemaking, placekeeping and the climate emergency. We argue that this tool has universal applicability in many planning systems for improving the policy response and imperative for GI, thereby increasing the potential for better spatial planning delivery.

Planning Theory & Practice Volume 20, 2019 - Issue 5

Resource Address (URL)

https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2019.1678667

Keywords

Green Economy

government policy

Green infrastructure

Language English

Resilient Scotland Part Three

Stephen Richard — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 10:41:44 +0000

Resilient Scotland Part Three

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Sat, 09/04/2021 - 11:41

Date Published

Sun, 06/21/2020 - 12:00

Category

Economy

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

The final stage of the Resilient Scotland Plan runs from 2025 with the upcoming Parliamentary session ending with Scotland becoming an independent country. All of the work started in Part Two will continue and the work that could not start due to the limitations of devolution can now commence. By 2045, the plan will be completely and Scotland will have been transformed into a net zero-carbon country with a resilient economy that works for All of Us.

More details

The Resilient Scotland Plan provides extensive detail on a practicable, deliverable programme for achieving what everyone now says is necessary – a vibrant, green economy which creates good jobs and delivers economic fairness. It is well past the time where it is viable for individuals and organisations still to be talking about broadly supporting the principle and we are now racing past the point where vague aspirations and boiler-plate language should be accepted.

It is no good to talk about ‘green investment’ if, by now, we are not identifying where that investment should come from, who should pay for it and how, and where specifically that investment should be going. It is farcical to suggest that a bit more of what we’re currently doing is even close to sufficient. Pick your crisis – Covid or the environment. Either in themselves requires an expenditure of effort and a level of investment that societies make only every few generations. Combine them and the case for being that generation is overwhelming.

What creates environmental vulnerability is the same thing that creates economic and social vulnerability. It is the economy in which we were promised all failures would be ended through growth – yet it is the economy where 40 years of growth have actually accelerated the failures and caused an increase in the rate at which the economy ‘falls over’ in the face of even minor crises. It is time for Scotland to use its eyes and its brains. If we are promised that growth fixes everything. If, after 40 years of growth, so many things got worse. If that economy gets more vulnerable the more it stretches supply chains and the more it extracts. If so, how can more of the same achieve resilience? Resilience is not made out of vulnerability, it is the alternative to vulnerability.

If we have learned anything through the Covid crisis it is that half measures and hoping for the best achieve next to nothing. You do it – or you don’t do it. This Plan is something serious we can do.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Resilient-Scotland-Part-Thre…

Keywords

Economic resilience

Green Economy

Green new deal

Language English

Resilient Scotland Part One

Stephen Richard — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 16:00:56 +0000

Resilient Scotland Part One

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Sun, 08/15/2021 - 17:00

Alternative Published Date

2021

Category

Economy

Banking

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

The borrowing cap for the Scottish Parliament should be removed or lifted substantially so public expenditure can be used where needed; but, more importantly the Scottish National Investment Bank should be given full dispensation to act as a bank and thus capitalise from sources such as pension funds and lend to the public as well as private sector. Public procurement should be entirely reprofiled with the public policy goal of supporting Scottish business and achieving the maximum number of manufacturing jobs.

More details

By using Resilience Economics we can replace an economic toolbox with few policy options which creates inequality, environmental harm and repeated economic crises with one based on a much more balanced set of economic theories which prioritise public-good outcomes and will result in a more stable economy. This can be made to work under devolution if we focus on unlocking Scotland’s economic underdevelopment and support this not with bailouts for existing businesses but transition packages linked to reprofiled public spending and sustainable investment from the Scottish National Investment Bank.

This is underpinned by a series of over-arching policy goals which explain what kind of economy we are seeking to achieve; replacing an unhealthy focus on GDP growth with these will make clear the kind of economic change Scotland is pursuing. Scotland is inordinately well positioned to achieve this because of the current underdevelopment of our copious natural and human resources.

To achieve this we must do the following: Set up a Transition Academy to help policy-makers adapt to the new agenda. Set up a Diversification Agency to support new and existing businesses to grasp the opportunities being unlocked. Create a guaranteed retraining programme for those who lose employment. Reprofile public procurement spending to support this transition Begin a major programme of public rental house-building linked to an integrated supply chain strategy. Create a mortgage-to-rent scheme for households at risk of losing their home. Introduce a tourism rescue package with all citizens being given a £100 voucher for a stay at a Scottish hotel Introduce a similar voucher scheme for the hospitality sector. Develop a form of Universal Basic Income for artists. Devise plans for a future Festival of Scotland to support the entertainment and events sector. Create an industrial strategy to unlock new economic activity in food production, materials manufacture, light manufacturing, housing, energy, hydrogen, land, design and innovation.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Resilient-Scotland-Part-One…

Keywords

Scottish National Investment Bank

Language English

Resilience Economics, an Economic Model for Scotland’s Recovery.

Stephen Richard — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 10:32:59 +0000

Resilience Economics, an Economic Model for Scotland’s Recovery.

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Sat, 07/31/2021 - 11:32

Alternative Published Date

2020

Category

Economy

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

We need a resilient economy, one which creates the good jobs that give people the income to live good lives now, which has the security to make us confident we can live good lives in the future, which useful, diverse, non-exploitative and which does not contain high levels of risk, or which falls over in a crisis. And this must all be based on a resilient environment which is always able to regenerate itself after human activity and can therefore sustain our lives now and in the future.

More details

To help visualise what Resilience Economics might mean in practice, the following is a short list of some of the high-level goals these economics suggest for Scotland:

― Scotland must create an economy which is more productive and useful and which reduces low-pay and insecure jobs with high-pay, secure ones

― Scotland should do much more to prioritise domestic productive business over corporations and help and encourage those businesses to develop themselves as part of a new green economy

― Scotland should get property price inflation under control so excessive rents and mortgages don’t undermine the economy again

― Scotland should make banking safe and boring so that a reliable and resilient banking sector can be trusted to provide crucial services – with risk-takers being allowed to fail

― Scotland should reduce the volume of commercial retail and to transition away from a reliance on the low-pay service sector

― Scotland must begin a major programme of green reindustrialisation and increase domestic manufacturing capacity

― Scotland’s recovery must be driven in part by land-based industries and so land reform will be crucial

― Scotland must adopt an ‘entrepreneurial state’ model working to a national industrial strategy

― Scotland must very substantially increase the proportion of our economy which is domestically owned

― Scotland must use the economic rebuilding post-virus to move rapidly to start a radical Green New Deal

― Nothing in Scotland’s recovery and its subsequent re-industrialisation process must be considered if it does not decrease economic inequality and poverty.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/policies/resilience-economics-summary/

Keywords