Green stimulus and pink batts: The environmental politics of Australia's response to the financial crisis

Abstract

In the wake of the global financial crisis (GFC), governments in many countries developed Keynesian fiscal stimulus packages to reinvigorate their economies. Most of these stimulus packages contained a portion of measures that were labelled by governments and other organizations as 'green'. Although several reports have assessed the amount and sectoral distribution of green spending in the major economies following the GFC, there has been minimal examination of how particular investment decisions were made or what the environmental outcomes have been. This paper examines Australia's experience with green stimulus with a focus on the controversial program for home insulation.