Green New Deal Realities: Insights from the US, Germany, and Beyond

EVENT CANCELLED 

Join us for this event featuring Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Director of Climate Policy at the Roosevelt Institute, and Jonas Schaible, Reporter and Editor at Der Spiegel. Daniel Aldana Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of California, Berkeley, will moderate. Gunn-Wright and Schaible will discuss American and German variants of green new deal policies and politics, paying close attention to success stories as well as political and technological roadblocks. Together, their analysis brings the broad transnational public support for green spending into focus, and they will highlight success stories in greening the economy in both countries. The speakers will also delve into the various challenges to green infrastructure--from fiscal conservatives' resistance to debt spending to the resurgence of radical rightwing movements in many parts of the world some of whom even call green policy "ecofascism." In conversation, our speakers will not only identify obstacles to GND implementation but also explore possible paths to a carbon neutral or even carbon negative economy.

Learn more about Climate and Democracy, a full year of programming

Speakers

Rhiana Gunn-Wright

Rhiana Gunn-Wright is the director of Climate Policy at the Roosevelt Institute, where she conducts research on the power of government to equitably decarbonize and democratize our economy. Gunn-Wright leads the think tank’s research at the intersection of climate policy, public investment, racial equity, and public power. Along with Lew Daly, Kristina Karlsson, and fellows associated with Roosevelt’s Climate and Economic Transformation (CET) Program, Rhiana aims to create a body of work that examines the role of economic policy and large-scale economic transformation in catalyzing just and rapid responses to the climate crisis. She also supports Roosevelt’s engagement with the Green New Deal Network and other partners in the climate movement. 

Jonas Schaible

Jonas Schaible is a reporter and editor at Der Spiegel. He was awarded the German Reporter Prize for the best essay in 2020 and is author of Demokratie im Feuer: Warum wir die Freiheit nur bewahren, wenn wir das Klima retten – und umgekehrt (Democracy on Fire. Why We Only Preserve Freedom If We Save The Climate - And Vice Versa), published in 2023. In his book, Schaible argues that climate and democracy are mutually dependent: democracy only exists on a habitable planet, and the climate can only be saved with democratic means. He takes a new look at politics in our times of climate crisis and creates a vision for the future in which freedom and climate protection strengthen each other.