Fatima Ibrahim
For promoting economic growth that puts the battle against climate change front and center
Fatima Ibrahim co-founded the U.K. hub of Green New Deal in 2019, with a goal of organizing and amplifying a generation frustrated by the prioritization of capitalism over climate concerns.
“Jobs Jobs Jobs is a great slogan,” Ibrahim recently tweeted at U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. “But they need to be GOOD jobs, they need to be GREEN jobs, and the level of investment needs to be much GREATER than single-digit billions.”
For many of today’s young adults—born and reared against a backdrop of climate crisis—economic concerns are eclipsed only by environmental ones. The global Green New Deal puts an eco spin on U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s, which aimed to alleviate the economic depression through investment in jobs.
Green New Deal UK estimates it would take £68 billion over two years to create the 1.2 million green jobs necessary to set the U.K. on the road toward zero carbon emissions by 2030. That’s a big price tag—and that’s kind of the point.
“Climate science tells us that we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the future, but time is running out,” Ibrahim said when she won the 2020 Global Citizen Prize: U.K.’s Hero Award. “People power is the only way we’re going to be able to overcome the challenges we face.”