It is such questions that we'd like to develop and bring to the movement with grassroots organisers like you. Are you interested in working with us to bring the Climate Bailout to the movement?
A bailout, in its simplest form, is the provision of government created money, supplied by central banks, to help failing companies or states. During financial crises, banks and governments have been bailed out by printing hundreds of billions of Euros/Dollars.
The climate emergency is an unprecedented crisis requiring an unprecedented response. We propose the provision of government created money as a key mechanism in helping mitigate climate breakdown and enabling a swift and just transition away from fossil fuels.
Central banks have a mandate to safeguard financial stability. When fossil fuel companies rapidly lose value, e.g. due to climate emergency response measures, this threatens financial stability. A climate bailout can help ensure an orderly transition from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy, while maintaining financial stability.
Fossil fuel investors are gamblers: they bet on continuing a model that will destroy our common home as long as possible to extract money. The stakes in this gamble are very high: fossil fuel infrastructure as of today is worth trillions of Euros on the market. BUT, be it due to an adequate political response to the climate emergency, the falling cost of renewables, or some other unforeseeable event (e.g. a global pandemic) that infrastructure stands to become worthless - the gamble is lost for those betting on fossil fuels. That’s why the powerful actors who have placed their bets on fossil fuels are doing everything they can to keep winning, including pushing our governments to scrap, delay or water down climate-protection measures. And so far, they are winning. The climate bailout will get these people out of the way by creating a tool that allows fossil fuel investors to swap their bet from fossils to renewables, but under the condition that the fossil fuel infrastructure is shut down for good, renewables are put in its place, and environmental and social responsibilities are covered in the shut-down.
In some places public ownership of fossil fuel companies is most likely the best way to ensure a quick exit from fossil fuels. In other places (e.g. Poland, where the coal industry is already owned and run by public companies) a different approach may be needed.
Making sure that any bailouts for the industry come with conditions, such as a majority public share of the company, is one of a number of ways to ensure that the industry is wound down in the timeframes needed and in a way that brings justice for impact peoples.
A number of groups are calling for a carbon tax. We support these calls but a carbon tax alone will not provide the scale of investment needed to to mitigate the worst of the crisis. It’s estimated that between 500bn and 1trillion euros need to be invested every year for the next 15 years in transitioning European infrastructure away from fossil fuels. At best, a tax would bring a fraction of this amount.