“We choose to go to the moon...We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win...”

—President John. F. Kennedy, September 1962

Fifty years ago, this year, much of the world celebrated as the first man walked on the moon. Despite complaints about the cost and value of the effort, rigorous planning, huge investment and significant collaboration and innovation across sectors from rocket science to nutrition saw the realisation of the bold mission set just seven years earlier by President Kennedy. 

Today, instead of seven years to land on the moon, we have just over a decade to mitigate the worst outcomes of climate change, keep global temperatures within the 1.5 degree increase agreed in the Paris Accord and avoid wide-spread environmental collapse.

As with the moon landing, we have in front of us a bold mission — ending climate change and reversing the decline in our environment. But doing so will require far more direction, resources and innovation than that needed for the moon landing. It will require a significant, and potentially unprecedented, redirection of the economy to deliver a green economic transformation.

A Green New Deal for the UK is, in principle, precisely that. It is an industrial strategy writ large – seeking not just to mitigate climate change but to unlock new opportunities for investment and innovation, tackle inequality, improve quality of life and deliver an environmentally sustainable economy.