'100 months to save the planet'
A "Green New Deal" is needed to solve current problems of climate change, energy and finance, a report argues.
According to the Green New Deal Group, humanity only has 100 months to prevent dangerous global warming.
Its proposals include major investment in renewable energy and the creation of thousands of new "green collar" jobs.
In an article for the BBC News website's Green Room series, Mr Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation warns that the combination of the current credit crunch, rising energy prices and accelerating emissions are "conspiring to create the perfect storm".
"The UK and the global economy are entering unchartered waters, and the weather forecast is not bad, but appalling.
"Instead of desperate bailing-out, we need a comprehensive plan and new course to navigate each obstacle in this new phenomenon."
The group's recommendations include:
• massive investment in renewable energy and wider transformation in the UK
• the creation of thousands of new "green collar" jobs
• making low-cost capital available to fund the UK's green economic shift
• building a new alliance between environmentalists, industry, agriculture and unions
100 months left to make changes, beyond that we will not be able to prevent run away climate change, that is the claim from a group that includes Friends of the Earth, European Green Party and the New Economics Foundation. That we are now at the point where groups are counting the months off will be derided as doom merchants from our friends on the right but the reality is that climate change is happening much faster than predicted and that we risk catastrophic global climate changes that will not allow business as usual.
