Act now on G 20 – New Financial architecture and justice for the poorest countries!
The recent EU summit in Brussels was a chance to take common measures to tackle the global financial, economic and ecological crises. However, the summit turned out to be mishmash of national demands for financial support. This was clearly a missed opportunity to devise a strategy to overcome the crisis by a Green New Deal combining radical economic solutions and social and ecological responsibility.
On April 2, the G 20 will meet for the World Financial Summit in London, and the leaders of the biggest economies risk missing yet another opportunity. To avoid failure, enforceable agreements in at least three areas have to be achieved:
- Agreement on a Green New Deal, where the bulk of the money in recovery packages is dedicated to green investment, in particular energy and resource efficiency measures and renewable sources of energy production,
- Agreement on a specific 1,000 billion Euro stimulus package for the next two years, including a programme for developing countries, which are suffering most from the financial crisis and the effects of climate change,
- A serious commitment to a complete restructuring of the financial system so that:
•Every country, market, institution and financial product should be subject to stringent regulation,
•All tax havens are abolished
The IMF is strengthened and democratised
•A Financial Transaction Tax is introduced
•Hedge funds and private-equity funds are regulated
•Tax regulations privileging stock options are abolished
•stricter rules concerning equity controls for speculative businesses are introduced
Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) with the rich countries lending their allocations to the poorer ones are issued
Download the complete collection of resolutions from the 2009 Spring Council in PDF format here...