Introduction

The Green New Deal (GND) draws inspiration from the New Deal, which was a series of economic policies, government employment programs, and public works programs that were adopted by the US government during the tenure of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to tackle the Great Depression. The ability to draw on a successful economic and social mobilization from the recent past is particularly important at this moment when denial of climate science has largely been supplanted by strategies of climate delay. The rejection of a central focus on market mechanisms in the GND is critically important in distinguishing it from other “green” discourses. Investments in efficiency measures can certainly help with reducing overall energy consumption. This chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book.