Mario Draghi’s much-anticipated report for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calls for Europe to invest 5% of its income in green energy and sustainable technologies. The same plan was proposed nearly a decade ago – back when it could actually have been be implemented.
ATHENS – When the euro crisis was young, some of us became convinced that a massive public green investment program was necessary to save Europe from economic stagnation and from the ultra-right that would emerge as stagnation’s sole beneficiary. In 2017, I put a figure on what was needed: up to 5% of Europe’s total income for investment in green energy and sustainable technologies. Since we knew then, as we know now, that neither the European Union’s member states nor the EU’s budget could afford this sum, I proposed a novel way to finance it through European Investment Bank (EIB) bonds guaranteed by the European Central Bank (ECB).
ATHENS – When the euro crisis was young, some of us became convinced that a massive public green investment program was necessary to save Europe from economic stagnation and from the ultra-right that would emerge as stagnation’s sole beneficiary. In 2017, I put a figure on what was needed: up to 5% of Europe’s total income for investment in green energy and sustainable technologies. Since we knew then, as we know now, that neither the European Union’s member states nor the EU’s budget could afford this sum, I proposed a novel way to finance it through European Investment Bank (EIB) bonds guaranteed by the European Central Bank (ECB).