Transport and the Climate Crisis: Lessons for the Left
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- Published on Wednesday, 15 April 2020 09:42
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2058 ... April 15, 2020
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Transport and the Climate Crisis: Lessons for the Left
On 11 December 2019, The EU Commission announced its Green Deal initiative. On the same day transform! europe and the GUE/NGL (European United Left--Nordic Green Left) conducted a conference on a socialist Green New Deal in the European Parliament. "New Deal" is meant to conjure up the spirit of Roosevelt’s famous plan of strengthening the social welfare state and, particularly, the power of trade unions. These two points are conspicuously absent in the EU’s Green Deal and were barely addressed by the Commission with only a few forced and reluctant suggestions for the ongoing protests by Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, Ende Gelände (an alliance of anti-coal mining activists and climate activists) and other such social movements. It clearly falls to left-wing parties and radical social movements to actively pressure for a radical policy change. To put it bluntly, the Commission’s Green Deal has nothing to do with our vision of an ecological and feminist socialism. Nonetheless, the Green Deal does offer the Commission entry points toward... left-wing policy.
The transition of the automotive industry to a sustainable and society-oriented mobility industry, one of the focal points of the Green New Deal, is currently vehemently stonewalled, especially by the grand coalition in Germany. However, the transformation of the mobility industry comprises far more than modernizing the automobile sector. Issues at hand include unnecessary, EU-subsidized provincial airports scattered across the landscape, badly equipped national railway lines, and nonsensical EU subsidy directives that obstruct the development of the public transport system, besides more insidious psychological barriers equalizing greater road networks and the lack of speed limits with personal freedom.
We are faced with many challenges when attempting to devise a left-wing model for the transportation sector. Jens Holm’s essay draws from his experience as Chairman of the Transport Committee of the Swedish Parliament. This reflection paper is part of transform! europe’s productive transformation project.
