You may have been hearing a lot about a progressive “Green New Deal” in the news lately, but the concept has been circulating for longer than you might think. In fact, during President Obama’s first term, Obama and others promoted a Green New Deal to address the financial crisis as well as climate change. In this IAS Thursdays lecture from 2009, Melinda Cooper, Associate Professor in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Sydney, Australia, argues that the Green New Deal has its origins in the writings of John Maynard Keynes and discusses how the idea gained currency among politicians and the public.

From the 2009 event description: In the wake of the [2008] financial crisis, the question of a global insurer of last resort has once again moved centre stage. If brought into effect, such an authority would not only be responsible for underwriting accidents, both meteorological and financial, but also for ensuring the credibility of investments in the earth's future. At the same time, the project of a Global Green New Deal, espoused by the United Nations and the incoming Obama administration, aspires both to reregulate the volatilities of the weather and to launch a new regime of accumulation founded on natural capital, ecosystems' services and green jobs. As suggested by the return to Keynes, the Green New Deal comprises not only a political/legislative regime of labour regulation and labour rights but also a properly genealogical/sexual project of social welfare.