Hosting a two-day virtual global summit with 40 nations in attendance, the Biden/Harris Administration brought the United States back, after a four-year absence, as a leader in combatting climate change and promoting the creation of new clean energy jobs.
During the two day summit, Vice President Harris and President Biden, accompanied by their economic, energy, and environmental teams, pledged to:
- Cut carbon emission levels to half of their 2005 levels by 2030.
- Double the funding for climate-related projects in the developing world by 2024.
- Create millions of new jobs in clean energy and technology.
Vice President Harris opened the two-day event introducing President Biden and stated:
“As a global community, it is imperative that we act quickly and together to confront this crisis. And this will require innovation and collaboration around the world. It will require the use of renewable energy and new technologies. And it will give each of our nations the opportunity to build healthier communities and stronger economies.
Here, we believe tackling climate change, improving communities, and creating jobs can occur simultaneously. And we must recognize the importance, of course, of justice in the work that we do. The communities hardest hit by climate change are the same communities harmed by wealth and gender inequality, toxic air pollution, and so much more. This truth holds around the world.
So I urge all of us to focus on these communities, including indigenous communities and consider their insight and experience in our efforts moving forward. They are critical leaders in this fight.”
President Biden reminded his fellow leaders and their teams of the need to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, stating:
“You know, the world beyond 1.5 degrees means more frequent and intense fires, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and hurricanes tearing through communities, ripping away lives and livelihoods, increasingly dire impacts to our public health.”
Speaking on the potential for millions of new jobs, President Biden said:
“…Today’s final session is not about the threat of climate change poses; it’s about the opportunity that addressing climate change provides. It’s an opportunity to create millions of good-paying jobs around the world and innovate — in innovative sectors — you know, jobs that bring greater quality of life, greater dignity to the people performing those jobs in every nation.
For a line-worker, electricians, utility workers — laying transmission lines, connecting battery storage, and making our electric grid more modern. For automotive workers — building electric cars, trucks, and buses. Skilled workers installing and charge — charging stations to accommodate them throughout our countries.
Construction workers, engineers, insulators — upgrading our schools and commercial buildings, and constructing new energy-efficient homes. Manufacturing — manufacturing workers building nuclear and carbon capture technologies, solar panels, and wind turbines.
And people working in the fields that we haven’t even conceived of yet on farms and on factories and in laboratories and universities with things we haven’t even thought of so far…”
Virtually all the attending nations expressed similar goals for reducing emissions. According to a summary from reporters at the Washington Post, some like Britain and the European Union pledged to reduce emissions more than the United States. Canada and Japan said smaller targets. Russia would not commit to a number to cut emissions by 2050. The Chinese pledged to “strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.” Strive is the keyword there. Brazil promised to stop illegal deforestation but it is under the current government that disaster has increased.
Moving Forward
If past is prologue, this summit may be nothing more than a 40 nation kumbayah gathering. Five years after the Paris Climate Agreement, many of the interim goals and trends have not been met.
There will be another Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021.
By then, It will be time for all nations and political party’s (looking at you reactionary anti-science Republicans) to get serious about combatting climate change and developing alternative and sustainable clean energy options.
Remember there is no Planet B and for all the conservatives that moan and groan about how Democratic energy policies will stifle American competitiveness, keep in mind:
- Republican talking points about the economy have virtually never been proven to be historically correct. Ask them what happened to the Clinton, Obama, and Biden recessions they all predicted or how the Reagan, Bush, and Trump tax cuts would pay for themselves.
- We will not have to worry about American competitiveness if no one can breathe the air anymore.
Clean Sustainable Energy is the future.
According to reporting by CBS News, there are already three million clean energy jobs in the United States and they will grow.
Solar and wind are the major clean energy job sectors and they are growing.
In contrast, the coal industry had its lowest recorded employment numbers last year. Currently, the same number of people who work at Panda Express work in the coal industry.
By this time next year, Panda Express, a growing restaurant chain, will probably have more employees.
Two million people work in the energy-efficient arena with over a quarter-million laborers producing alternative fuel vehicles. Close to another half a million work on making the parts for these alternative fuel vehicles.
Recognizing the new reality, the United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts presented West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin a document called “Preserving Coal Country”
This was not a document to propose options to only revitalize the coal industry. These were suggestions to:
- Retrain miners in the clean energy jobs of the future.
- Tax Credits to motivate manufacturers to purchase solar panels and wind turbines.
- Develop clean coal technology to capture escaping carbon and store it.
Parts of this could have been lifted from the Biden/Harris American Jobs Plan.
When the workers in the declining fossil fuel industry know the time is up, all of America’s leaders should band together to create the clean energy infrastructure that will provide for millions of good-paying new jobs and restore/protect the environment.
Now is the time to act.