Jeremy Rifkin: Green New Deal for Europe and why we need renewable energy devices in every building

Jeremy Rifkin, American economic and social theorist and a climate activist, had a powerful presentation at DLD 2020 (Digital Life Design) entitled A Green New Deal for Europe. He firmly believes that the Fossil Fuel Civilization is collapsing.

Jeremy Rifkin – Green New Deal

In his latest book, also entitled The Green New Deal, he makes the case that smart technologies in connection with renewable energies can still help to avert a climate catastrophe. But it won’t be easy, he believes: “It’s a razor-thin path.” His message in the book is clear. He calls for a complete rethink of energy production and distribution in order to contain the effects of climate change.

We have made a selection of his quotes from the DLD 2020 session he had in Munich last week, that have had a great impact on our understanding:

• “Everything [today] is based on fossil fuels. If the price goes up, everything gets more expensive.”
• “We need a compelling economic vision for the future and an action-based plan for a fossil-free society by 2040. Not 2050.”
• “3 Internets are converging to make a Green New Deal possible”. Jeremy Rifkin says: “communications, mobility and energy (smart grid). Intelligence built into this networked economy will make green energy cheaper, more attractive than Fossil Fuel.
• “IOT will bring sensors everywhere – mostly buildings. Every building becomes a node. […] Every node becomes an Edge Data Center.”
• “The third industrial revolution likes to be decentral. The Edge Data Centers around the world [through IOT] cannot be managed through the cloud. To high latencies! […] It is shifting from globalization to GLOCALISATION.”
• Heading to glocalisation & decentralized networks: “You can plunge your Carbon Footprint by getting more from less.”
• “Market capitalism is too slow for the Digital Revolution because of a world of low marginal costs. […] We have to move from ownership to access. […] From GDP to ‘quality of life indicator.'”
• “We will move from GDP as a measure of the economy to “quality of life indicators.” He says “sharing economy is not in GDP” – the first new economic system to enter the world stage since capitalism.
• »We need an immediate freeze on any further coal, oil and natural gas development.«
• “You can try to stimulate startups, but if they are based on a fossil-fuel society, centralized communications […], nothing will change.”
• “We don’t even need new taxes. There are a lot of assets in the private sector that want to be invested [with a high return].”
• “For every year we invest in [renewable energy, etc.] infrastructure, we get 2-3 years of GDP back.”
• “Sun and wind have never invoiced us. […] The market is speaking.”
• “The [renewable, green, …] technology is now here. We don’t need any more R&D. There are no excuses.”

Menerga Rewatemp enables a renewable future for buildings

At Menerga we have been developing units and systems that support the vision of a fossil fuel free society. Our latest unit that helps buildings to vastly reduce their energy needs with the help of renewable energy sources is called Menerga Rewatemp. This is a hybrid device for additional use of renewable sources of energy. RewaTemp combines a heat pump and a chiller in one special hybrid unit. The system enables optimum simultaneous generating of heating and cooling energy with the help of renewable energy sources. More on this unit is available here.

See the entire presentation »A Green New Deal for Europe« by Jeremy Rifkin from the DLD Conference here:

Further opinions from Jeremy Rifkin can be read in the interview he gave for the DLD community.

More on Jeremy Rifkin

Jeremy Rifkin is an American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist.

Jeremy Rifkin has been an advisor to the leadership of the European Union since 2000. He has advised three presidents of the European Commission – Romano Prodi, Jose Manuel Barroso, and the current President, Jean-Claude Juncker – as well as the European Parliament, and numerous EU heads of state, including Germany’s Angela Merkel, on the ushering in of a smart green Third Industrial Revolution economy.

Rifkin is the author of 21 bestselling books about the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment.

The books have been translated into more than 35 languages. His most recent books include the international bestsellers, The Green New Deal (2019), The Zero Marginal Cost Society (2014), The Third Industrial Revolution (2011), The Empathic Civilization (2010), The European Dream (2004), The Hydrogen Economy (2002), The Age of Access (2000), The Biotech Century (1998), and The End of Work (1995).