In Support of a Renewable Energy and Materials Economy: A Global Green New Deal That Includes Arctic Sea Ice Triage and Carbon Cycle Restoration

Abstract

A Global Green New Deal (GGND)—that includes Arctic sea ice climate triage and carbon cycle climate restoration, and that, following Eisenberger (2020), would move us toward a renewable energy and materials economy (REME)—is necessary to turn our current civilization and species-threatening climate crises into an opportunity to stabilize our planet’s climate and advance to a new, more equitable and prosperous stage of human development. Imminent, potentially catastrophic, global climate impacts of Arctic sea ice loss, the first global climate “tipping point,” are reviewed, and practical and efficient potential climate triage methods for avoiding this are summarized. Longer-term carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and carbon capture, sequestration, and use (CCSU) methods, that would move us toward long-term carbon cycle climate restoration, are presented. A general reframing of climate policy and specific GGND policy proposals—that include Arctic sea ice climate triage and carbon cycle climate restoration that would rapidly move us toward a REME and avoid increasingly catastrophic climate impacts—are proposed. JEL Classification: Q53, Q54, Q55, Q56, Q58