Rethinking the Green New Deal: Using Climate Policy to Address Inequality
AEI Economic Policy Working Paper Series
July 01, 2019
By Aparna Mathur
Abstract
The Green New Deal is best understood as an ambitious mobilization of the economic and environmental resources of the country to achieve, within a period of ten years, the twin targets of a cleaner economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and a more equal and fair society where workers can get decent paying jobs with benefits, healthcare, housing and economic security. The challenge with the Green New Deal is to combine these two goals and address the question of financing both in a practical as well as an effective manner. As I explain in this paper, one such solution could be a carbon tax. A well-designed carbon tax could raise over a $100 billion in revenues on an annual basis, which could then be used to achieve other social and economic policy goals.