President Joe Biden launched the “American Climate Corps” on Wednesday, a new initiative designed to train 20,000 “young people on career pathways in the growing fields of clean energy, conservation and climate resilience,” according to the White House.
Drawing inspiration from the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps, young people trained by the American Climate Corps will be put to work “conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy, implementing energy efficient technologies, and advancing environmental justice,” the White House said in an online statement.
Biden is creating the Climate Corps through executive action.
According to the White House, the corps “will focus on equity and environmental justice – prioritizing communities traditionally left behind, including energy communities that powered our nation for generations.”
The program aims to advance the Biden administration’s so-called “Justice40 Initiative,” which seeks to allocate 40 percent of “Federal investment flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.”
The Biden administration wouldn’t say how much the program would cost, only that it was a collaborative effort and will draw on funds from the Labor, Interior, Agriculture, and energy departments, AmeriCorps, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, according to the New York Times.
“This is important because we’re not only opening up pathways to bold climate action, we’re not just opening up pathways to decarbonization, we’re opening up pathways to good paying careers, lifetimes of being involved in the work of making our communities more sustainable, more fair, more resilient in the face of a changing climate,” Ali Zaidi, the White House’s climate policy adviser said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
The White House also announced that it is launching Forest Corps, a collaboration between AmeriCorps — a federal agency that provides community assistance — and the Forest Service. The program aims to engage 80 young adults, 18 to 26, in “wildland fire prevention, reforestation, and other natural and cultural resource management projects.”
The move is widely seen as drawing inspiration from New Deal-era social programs such as the Civilian Conservation and Peace Corps enacted by President Roosevelt during the Great Depression. The historic imagery was echoed by
Varshini Prakash, the chief executive of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-inspired climate change advocacy organization, noted the connection with former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps. He joined Zaidi in announcing the new program.
“Just as FDR Civilian Conservation Corps put millions to work repairing bridges, planting trees and building national parks, this climate corps will conserve our land and water, bolster community resilience, advance environmental justice and tackle the climate crisis,” he said.