A year after the concept of a "Civilian Climate Corps" was scrapped in the negotiation over the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden announced the formation of the American Climate Corps, a first-of-its-kind jobs program “to train young people in high-demand skills for jobs in the clean energy economy,” per the White House’s new website to sign up for more information. The American Climate Corps will create a projected 20,000 jobs for young people in its first year.
Modeled on an FDR/New Deal-era program (nearly a century ago), Biden has long floated the policy, signing an executive order in his first days in office for agencies to begin brainstorming about such a program. Per NPR, the resulting program is smaller than previously proposed iterations. According to the Washington Post, participants will be paid, but specifics on compensation were not shared. NPR also reported that most positions will not require prior experience.
Eight states have similar programs underway, and the White House said in its announcement that five more states – Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and Utah – will also launch programs.
The current concept came out of the work of the Sunrise Movement and other climate activists who have agitated the past two administrations over the last five years to take serious action on the climate crisis.
In spring 2021, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — the original sponsors of the Green New Deal in Congress — introduced a bill that would have created a Civilian Climate Corps. This past Monday, Markey and Ocasio-Cortez sent a letter to the Biden administration asking that the program be implemented via executive order, as House Republicans are unlikely to pass the bill; the letter was signed by 51 members of Congress.
The announcement comes amid several days of climate protests in New York City timed to a United Nations climate summit during its general assembly. Biden faced condemnation from protesters for not attending the summit, as well as for what they consider to be inadequate urgency and progress in combating climate change.
Sunrise is celebrating the newly announced program, with executive director Varshini Prakash saying in a statement, “We turned a generational rallying cry into a real jobs program that will put a new generation to work stopping the climate crisis.”
But others have been less impressed. Keanu Arpels-Josiah, a member of Fridays for Future NYC and an organizer behind Sunday’s March to End Fossil Fuels, warned in a statement that the program, while important, is simply not enough to address the greater problem: “A Climate Corps that focuses solely on promoting renewables doesn't do the job. It won’t undo the Biden administration’s damage in approving climate bombs like [the Willow Project],” Arpels-Josiah said. “It won’t end new fossil fuel projects and phase out existing projects in the timeline we need for our generation to survive.”
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