Biden launches 'climate corps' for green jobs

Biden launches 'climate corps' for green jobs

US President Joe Biden, pictured in Arizona in August 2023, has made the clean energy transition a key plank of his 2024 reelection bid
US President Joe Biden, pictured in Arizona in August 2023, has made the clean energy transition a key plank of his 2024 reelection bid. Photo: Jim WATSON / AFP/File
Source: AFP

PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ click on “Recommended for you” and enjoy!

US President Joe Biden launched a new "Climate Corps" on Wednesday to help young people get green jobs, as he tries to sell voters on his plans for a clean energy economy.

"Today, we are mobilizing the next generation of clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience workers," Biden said on X, formerly Twitter.

Biden added that the scheme would train over 20,000 young people to get "good-paying jobs" after they complete their paid training.

The US president has made the economy a key plank of his bid for reelection in 2024, particularly through his signature Inflation Reduction Act.

The ambitious climate law aims to speed the US transition to clean energy, rebuild US industry and boost social justice.

Biden, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, warned the world body yesterday that the climate crisis poses an existential threat to "all of humanity."

Read also

French Apple workers call strike on iPhone 15 debut

PAY ATTENTION: Share your outstanding story with our editors! Please reach us through info@corp.legit.ng!

US climate activists, who have long called for the initiative, gave it a mixed reception.

One group, Evergreen, said it was a "big step toward delivering good jobs for young people in the booming clean energy economy."

But Keanu Arpels-Josiah, an organizer of an anti-fossil fuels march in New York last Sunday, said it was "not enough."

The Climate Corps' name has echoes of the US Peace Corps which has sent volunteers around the world for decades.

US media said however that it was more closely modelled on a scheme during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" to get America out of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The Civilian Conservation Corps set around a quarter of a million unemployed young men to work on a huge program of projects like reforestation and dam-building.

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.