UN calls for Global Green New Deal

Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), said on Thursday, a “Global Green New Deal” could be arranged by injecting $750 billion to prime the pumps in the global economy and shield the environment including, possibly, an oil tax.

Steiner said a UNEP study will be laid out to the world’s leaders on April 2nd in London.

He said money should be invested in action against climate change, wind or solar power, and better energy efficiency in buildings, reducing poverty and creating employment.

The UNEP report claims that about $750 billion, equal to one percent of global GDP, could provide the funds.

The UNEP proposal echoes the “New Deal” of President Franklin D. Roosevelt intended to push the US economy out of the 1930s depression.

Steiner said that investment is needed to ignite a U.N. agreement on global warming in December in Copenhagen, to stretch the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

He suggested a tax on oil in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

He said a $5 a barrel tax, approximately 3 cents per litre, over five years in the OECD would create $100 billion per annum.

He believes that the consumer would hardly notice it, since the oil price is now $40 a barrel, down from over $140 in mid-2008.

Money from this tax will persuade poor countries to increase steps to cut increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, he said.

Carbon markets would not bring enough money in the first few years after a climate agreement but could eventually be a source of finance for combating climate change, he added.

Steiner said it is encouraging that many countries, including China and the USA, were using financial priming packages to encourage a change to cleaner activities and less use of fossil fuels.

However, others see the deal as a tax planned to reduce U.S. sovereignty and a move towards more centralised legislation globally.

They say that when the price of oil returns to $140 and above, hyperinflation unavoidably starts after the injection by the Federal Reserve of another $1 trillion dollars in to the money supply, and the UN is taxing oil, then the end result could be disastrous.

They believe that global warming caused by mankind is a fraudulent myth spread by those who would profit enormously if a climate change tax is enacted.

They maintain that the world’s climate has changed continuously since pre-historical eras from fiercely hot to extremely cold, well below freezing.