New Economics Foundation and The Green New Deal

Part 10 of Eco Emergency

In today’s instalment of Eco Emergency I will introduce you to the New Economics Foundation (NEF) whose CEO Danny Sriskandarajah, also the author of Power to the People, a manifesto to inspire citizen action, is to appear on BBC Question Time this evening.

The NEF is a charity that, according to its profile, “aims to maximise well-being and social justice within environmental limits through innovative economic thinking and practical solutions. Our work involves pilot projects, in-depth research, campaigning, and informing policy.”

NEF is blatantly left-leaning. One of its campaigns, “Share the wealth”, claims that “The richest are taking too much.” Elsewhere it calls for a “shorter worker week”, a concept pushed by the campaign group Compass, which I wrote about in Part 1 of Eco Emergency (and relates to this piece):

NEF also wants to:

• Scrap the two-child limit and benefit cap

• have a frequent flying levy in Europe; and

• for Labour to introduce a new national wealth fund.

Given its left-wing convictions and lobbying activities, I’m not sure why taxpayers have been charged £564,360 for this “charity” since 2019:

Especially as it has such generous funders (2022/​23):

It’s not the first time I’ve seen some of these funders, incidentally.

Earlier this month I wrote for The Daily Sceptic about the Institute for Progressive Policy Research (IPPR), another blatantly left-wing “charity” that taxpayers have been charged for (seriously, I have NO idea how this happened under the past Conservative government).

*£389.25k for the IPPR between 2018-22:

Moreover, the IPPR receives funding from:

• Barrow Cadbury Trust £20,001 - £30,000

• European Climate Foundation £250,001 - £300,000

… as well as £20,001 - £30,000 from NEF.

So… The Barrow Cadbury Trust gave NEF £20,001, and NEF then gave the IPPR £20,001 - £30,000. You might as well cut out the middleman and have The Barrow Cadbury Trust give the IPPR the money directly. This doesn’t make much sense to me?

But it can look good for organisations to have lots of names on their funding pages (even when the money is coming from the same sources) - as if they are endorsed by many different bodies, and therefore doing great work.

Elsewhere on its website, NEF talks about its “missions”.

This isn’t an accident; it comes from Professor Marianna Mazzucato, an economist advising Keir Starmer, the SNP and even the Mexican government. In the past she has advised the Conservatives, WHO and EU…

… the latter of which appears to have gone off her missions (probably because they are complete crap):

You can also sense Mazzucato’s influence in the IPPR report Mission-driven government: Delivering for the British public in an age of distrust and disruption.

But back to NEF…

One of the most interesting takeaways from its website is about the Green New Deal:

Where have I heard that before?

You may have also seen my video yesterday pointing out how the US (Democrats) and UK (Labour) are trying to forge a global alliance, under voters’ noses, to achieve this Green New Deal:

NEF gives very important clues to the origins of the Green New Deal:

Back in 2008, NEF was part of a visionary group that proposed a Green New Deal. Now the school strikers, Extinction Rebellion and politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have combined with influential reports from the Committee on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to thrust climate and the Green New Deal back up the political agenda. They have forced political parties into competing on carbon targets.

We are part of a growing movement of activists, social justice campaigners, workers, politicians and other think tanks building on this momentum to create an economy-wide plan to halt climate change and restore nature. The plan is for huge investment in the economic future of the UK, to combat the crises of inequality and climate change at the same time.

Above all, NEF stands for a just transition: tackling climate change must go hand in hand with tackling inequality.

This text helps to explain why some campaign groups are so incestuous. For instance, the fact that the campaign group Compass, which - like NEF - wants a shorter-week, has worked with Green New Deal MP Clive Lewis and has links to Extinction Rebellion:

If this is confusing, I have put together this VERY BASIC sketch - to start mapping out the connections (you can tell there’s no tech expert at Charlotte Gill HQ). And this is just the start, by the way… there’ll be more!

At the very least, when you watch Sriskandarajah tonight, you can pretty much predict what views he’ll have (that’s if you’re not raging at the fact we funded him).

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