The Green Deal

After a decade of neoliberalism selling off public services, local governments are taking matters into own hands again? For example, Amsterdam and the other shareholders of Nuon, ‘the second largest energy company in the Netherlands’, agreed to sell their energy company to German giant RWE. Amsterdam is making plans to start its own energy company with this the money they’ll earn from the sell. Not just another energy company, but a green one. Goal is to generate 33% of the city’s energy needs in 2020. A similar thing is happening in Hamburg. After the city sold its local energy company to Vattenfall, it started Hamburg Energy. Although small at the moment, Hamburg Energy will supply the city with sustainable energy. Will this be the future local governments that satisfy their own energy needs?

Is this the beginning of a new trend? Governments taking matters into there own hands again, starting with new green public works? With current interest of the public in a sustainable future, this might be the case. People are pretty worried about global warming, globalism and the current economic situation. The public is begging for a secure future which involves green energies, but also locally produced foods. People want cities going for a neutral future generating there own sustainable power and not throwing anything away. Cities that recycle, refurbish or use cradle-to-cradle technology to not ruin the environment  even more.

Hopefully this is here to stay. When better times come for the economy, people tend to forget about the environment. Just like they did in the nineties. Which way will it go? Will every city be owner of its clean energy, or will people forget today’s lessons and let greed take over again? Time will tell.