NEVER mind the downturn, a green economic revolution must be launched within months, one of the world’s top economists has told 91av.
“You do hear voices saying now is not the moment,” says Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank and economic adviser to the UK government. “Now is precisely the moment to make the change.”
Stern believes that low-carbon technologies have the potential to fuel economic growth in a much more sustainable manner than previous booms based on the dot com and housing bubbles. With public money and incentives for private investment, low-carbon technologies could transform 21st-century society in the way that railways and information technologies did in previous centuries, he says.
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“Low-carbon technologies could transform society in the way that railways did in the 19th century”
There may be no better time. To reverse the slowdown, politicians have already been discussing some of the biggest cash injections in decades, Stern points out. What’s more, banks are dropping interest rates, which means investors can borrow at a lower cost.
“It has got to be fast,” Stern warns. “The fiscal expansion has got to be put in place, the policy decisions have got to be taken in the next three to four months. They take time to kick in. The urgency of decision-making should be very clear to everybody.”
