The economy now emerging from the global financial crisis and the global environmental crisis will favour green entrepreneurs and zero emissions production.

The new economy will be much more energy efficient, use cleaner production, employ highly specialised workers and generate many new local and small scale businesses.

The scientific evidence now points to increasing risks of serious, dangerous and irreversible impacts from climate change if we continue along with a business-as usual approach.

A ‘Green New Deal’ takes Roosevelt’s approach to public investment during a depression and applies it to today’s circumstances with a focus on improving environmental, social and economic outcomes.

An Australian Green New Deal could focus on three areas:

1. Building retrofitting
2. Sustainable infrastructure
3. Green and clean energy skills policy

Investment in these areas would create an economic stimulus effect, long-term investment in jobs, emphasis on lowering emissions and making Australia internationally competitive.

Many countries have now adopted a Green New Deal approach. The most impressive of these is in South Korea, who are
spending $US36 billion during 2009-2012 to create 960,000 jobs. 149,000 jobs will be created in 2009, including in renewable energy and public transport.

The green collar workforce is not just high tech jobs designing solar thermal plants or undertaking R&D for geothermal energy technology. Investing more, for example, in small scale works to improve walking, cycling and public transport, such as mending footpaths, would create ‘green jobs’. Green or clean energy jobs can be low, medium or high skilled.

We need to create and train a ‘carbon army’ of workers to provide the human resources for a vast environmental reconstruction programme, including in afforestation.

To be globally competitive, Australia needs to combine an education strategy that prepares our workers for these new
opportunities and business incentives to encourage new directions.

A recent report produced for Environment Victoria and released earlier this year vividly and practically illustrates how it is possible to create thousands of green or clean energy jobs. The report notes, for example, if half of all Australian housing stock was retrofitted over 5 years to be more energy and water efficient, up to 27,800 jobs could be created.