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Today, we stand together to lift up and reflect on the progress we are making as a nation – progress propelled by the hard work of the American people, endowed with the inventiveness to imagine a better future and inspired with the willingness to roll up our sleeves and build it.

Over the last few years, we have come together around this hopeful calling – united in this important task at this important time. We are building back not only from an awful economic crisis, but also from decades of underinvestment in our infrastructure, our communities, and our industrial strength – truly, an underinvestment in America.

So many times, each of us has driven by that idled factory or blighted plot, some place where the loss of opportunity is fenced in and the chance for a comeback seemingly fenced out. These are monuments to underinvestment and a failed economic policy that promised prosperity will just trickle down – but never delivered.

Fortunately, if we invest in America, there is a better way forward.

Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership, that is exactly where we are headed – bringing down the barriers to economic opportunity, lowering costs for American families, and, in just three and a half years, creating 16 million jobs with rising wages and with unemployment at its lowest level in 50 years.

We see the bet on America’s promise, our potential and possibilities, paying off as we reclaim the lead in the global race on clean energy and in the interconnected fight against the pollution that fuels the climate crisis.

And we see that bet paying off as we find solutions to what felt like unsolvable problems.

Today, finally, America is leading in the race to innovate the technologies needed to tackle climate pollution in the industrial sector.

The largest source of global climate pollution and the source of about 30 percent of U.S. climate pollution, the industrial sector has long been considered “hard to decarbonize.”

But we’re changing the game. To meet our climate goals, we are innovating and modernizing the way we make steel, aluminum, cement, and other bedrock materials of our economy.

The transformation is underway, and not by accident. The Biden-Harris Administration has deployed all tools in its policy toolbox to expand clean manufacturing. Buoyed by this support, American manufacturers and workers are stepping up.

Yet, as they reach for scale, their efforts have found some critical scaffolding missing – an inability to measure progress.

The U.S. government lacks a comprehensive emissions intensity measurement system. That has been an inhibitor.

Today, we are making progress to help fill that gap – to build the data infrastructure we need to drive forward our clean manufacturing strategy.

We are launching a new and critical effort at the Department of Energy – a pilot program that will offer data tools to track and accelerate reductions in industrial emissions, and to ensure that clean manufacturing remains competitive.

It is a meaningful move to build not just a foundation, but a launch pad for our ambition in this space.

Before offering more details on this data effort, let me describe how this data puzzle piece fits into our broader clean manufacturing strategy.

To fuel today’s industrial transformation, the Biden-Harris Administration is currently deploying the largest investment in clean manufacturing in U.S. history.

These investments are supporting game-changing projects that transform how we manufacture materials that form the backbone of our economy.

A couple of projects will make the U.S. one of the first nations in the world to convert clean hydrogen into clean steel.

One project will build a new clean aluminum smelter – the first primary aluminum smelter to be built in the U.S. in 45 years – which will avoid about 75 percent of the emissions of a conventional facility.

Other projects will virtually eliminate the emissions associated with making cement – a millennia-old process that is responsible for about 8 percent of global, human-caused carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, we’re pairing this supply push with a demand pull. We’re working to ensure that there’s a market on the other end of these investments for the clean steel and cement that’s produced.

Buy Clean, a flagship initiative of the Biden-Harris Administration, leverages the U.S. government’s sway as the largest purchaser on Earth to spur demand for low-emissions construction materials. When the government buys steel for federal buildings or concrete for highways, Buy Clean ensures that we support businesses that are investing in clean production.

Right now, agencies are deploying more than $4 billion under Buy Clean to support government purchases of low-emissions materials. And we’ve recruited a dozen states to do the same, harnessing the power of their procurement as a spur for innovation and scale.

As we invest in clean manufacturing, we are reminded of the importance to not let unfair trade undercut this industrial transformation.

For too long, trade policies that ignore climate change have incentivized a shift in energy-intensive manufacturing to countries with lower standards and higher climate pollution.

We need to level the playing field, and we need to level it up.

Take a look at aluminum. The U.S. used to be the world’s biggest producer of aluminum. Many of our aluminum smelters were powered by clean hydropower. But starting in the 1990s, smelter after smelter closed down under divestment and unfair trade. Each closure spelled lost jobs for workers and lost tax revenue for industrial communities. Today, we have only four primary aluminum smelters left in the country – four.  

As U.S. production declined, production in China rose to take its place, driven in part by China’s non-market policies. Today, more than half of the world’s aluminum is made in China. That’s an industrial competitiveness problem. It’s also a climate problem. Because the average ton of aluminum made in China is 65 percent more emissions-intensive than in the U.S.

This race to the bottom has undercut our climate goals, the competitiveness of clean manufacturers, and the good jobs they offer to industrial workers and communities.

Our workers and communities deserve a race to the top – one that supports climate action across borders while buttressing our investments to expand clean manufacturing at home.

That is why earlier this year we created the new White House Task Force on Climate, Trade, and Industrial Competitiveness. To develop tools and approaches that will help close the climate loophole in our trade policies. To ensure a level playing field for our clean manufacturers and workers. To accelerate industrial decarbonization globally.

We want to work with trade partners, Congress, and industry, labor, and environmental stakeholders to help build a new trade framework that actually rewards clean manufacturing.

The Task Force is taking a strategic, cross-governmental approach, building on decades of research and policy expertise. The work of the Task Force includes: identifying and developing data and methodologies for measuring the emissions intensity of traded goods; identifying opportunities to accelerate industrial decarbonization in emissions-intensive, trade exposed sectors; exploring a broad set of potential climate and trade policy options that help us achieve both our domestic and international climate goals; and coordinating engagement with key stakeholders, Congress, and trading partners.

The Task Force is working with like-minded trade partners and allies at all levels of development to develop compatible approaches that foster a level playing field, incentivize industrial decarbonization, reduce the emissions embodied in traded goods, and ensure developing countries have the opportunity and capacity to participate in this low-carbon trade system.

We are engaging with them as they pursue similar efforts, including on questions of data and methodologies, administrability, and policy design. We seek to build a fair and compatible framework for supporting and rewarding clean manufacturing, not a patchwork of divergent approaches.

Data is one area that has been a priority for us – an area we see as primed for progress. Reliable, transparent emissions intensity data is the foundation of effective climate-aligned trade policies. As you know, part of the work of our Task Force is to help ensure that we have credible, robust, and granular data for climate and trade policies.

In addition, as we invest billions in new, emissions-cutting technologies for manufacturing, policymakers and manufacturers need reliable estimates of how quickly we’re reducing the emissions intensity of essential materials.

So do the buyers of these materials. Global demand is rising for steel, aluminum, cement, and other materials that are made with a low level of emissions. New climate-focused trade policies around the world, national green procurement efforts such as Buy Clean, industry commitments, and consumer preferences are all driving this rising demand for clean manufacturing.

As the market for clean manufacturing grows, the United States, our trading partners, and consumers need an accurate and transparent system for measuring the emissions intensity of energy-intensive industrial products.

So far, the United States has not had a comprehensive emissions intensity measurement system.

But today we can report progress to help fill in this missing puzzle piece. The pilot program that the Department of Energy is announcing today will help coordinate data sources across the federal government to assemble rigorous, timely, and accurate emissions intensity statistics.

These metrics will support our climate and clean manufacturing goals alike. An accurate, whole-of-government emissions intensity framework will help to incentivize further reductions in industrial emissions and support the competitiveness of clean manufacturing as the emissions intensity of traded goods becomes increasingly important.

The White House Task Force on Climate, Trade, and Industrial Competitiveness looks forward to continued work with Congress and industry, labor unions, environmental advocates, and academic stakeholders to develop the data infrastructure we need. In fact, we will be following up today’s announcement with a webinar laying out more details and drawing our stakeholders in to be even closer thought partners.

Critically, we also look forward to continued work with trade partners to explore compatible, coordinated approaches to emissions intensity data so we can avoid a patchwork of divergent approaches.

With solid data, we can accelerate the Biden-Harris Administration’s comprehensive clean manufacturing strategy – an interlocking mix of investment, procurement, and trade policies to tackle a major source of climate pollution while boosting a major source of good jobs.

Working together, we can win the industrial transformation we need for a livable climate and a more equitable economy. We can launch the race to the top that our workers and communities deserve.

The promise is what I saw last year in Toledo, Ohio. What was once a brownfield is now the site of a new manufacturing plant, where union steel workers are forging a cleaner product than what we used to import from overseas. The Hot Briquetted Iron from that Cleveland Cliffs factory is the start of a supply chain critical to U.S. automotive manufacturing – for UAW workers an hour away in Michigan making next generation vehicles and helping America lead that global industry. This is the real promise: not just steel in the ground, but steel in the spine of the American middle class. A real chance to win the future.

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The post Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi at the Yale Club of New York City on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Progress in Accelerating Clean Manufacturing appeared first on The White House.

InterContinental New York Barclay
New York, New York

2:17 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Well, General Secretary, it’s great to see you again, have you here in the United States.  We appreciate it.

Is this simultaneous interpretation?

One year ago, in Hanoi, we began a new era of relations with Vietnam and the United States, and we elevated our partnership to the highest level as possible.  Since then, we’ve been — I’ve been very proud of the progress we’ve made.

First of all, we made historic investments in semiconductors and supply chains.  And I want to note this was made possible through our CHIPS and Science Act here at home.

Second, we launched unprecedented cooperation on cybersecurity.

And third, we stood united building a more open and secure Indian Ocean committed to freedom of navigation and the rule of law.

And finally, we continue our pathbreaking work to heal the wounds of war.  I’m proud that we, the United States, have committed $215 million to complete the detox — the tox- — the detox remediation, as well as — as we have many more things to do as well.

Secretary General, as I — or General Secretary, I should say — I suggested at the U.N. address, there’s nothing beyond our capacity when we work together.  So, we welcome you all and looking forward to our conversation.

The floor is yours.

GENERAL SECRETARY LÂM:  (As interpreted.)  It’s a great pleasure to meet with you again, Mr. President.  Well, this is the third time we met.  As the Vietnamese proverb says, “It feels like a destined encounter.”

First, on behalf of the party, the state, and people of Vietnam and the family of the late General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng, I wish to convey our heartfelt gratitude to you, Mr. President, for your sincere condolences on his passing and thank you for dispatching State Secretary Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to pay their respects.

We deeply value the warm regards from the United States and from you personally, President Biden, towards late General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng.  And even during his lifetime, the late general secretary often spoke of you with fond memories and sincere appreciation.

His historic visit to the U.S. in 2015 followed by your visit to Vietnam in September last year were historic milestones and have significantly advanced the growth of the Vietnam-U.S. relations, resulting in a higher level of the relations that we enjoy today.

We appreciate very much your liking towards Vietnam, and your historic contributions have been pivotal in elevating our bilateral relations to the comprehensive strategic partnership as we enjoy today. 

Thank you very much, once again, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Thank you.  And, again, welcome.  And welcome to all of you. 

Thank you.

2:22 P.M. EDT

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American Climate Corps Has Already Put 15,000 Young Americans to Work as Part of Its Inaugural Cohort

Environmental Protection Agency and AmeriCorps Announce a New Environmental Justice Climate Corps; the Department of Housing and Urban Development Joins the Interagency American Climate Corps Initiative

Since taking office, President Biden has delivered on the most ambitious climate, clean energy, conservation, and environmental justice agenda in history – signing into law the largest investment in climate action ever, protecting more than 42 million acres of public lands and waters, creating good-paying clean energy jobs, and establishing the Justice40 Initiative, which sets the goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits from certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

As part of his historic commitment to tackle the climate crisis, President Biden launched the American Climate Corps (ACC) to mobilize the next generation of clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience workers, with a goal to put 20,000 young people to work in the clean energy and climate resilience economy in the initiative’s first year. Today, in celebration of Climate Week, the White House is announcing that more than 15,000 young Americans have been put to work in high-quality, good-paying clean energy and climate resilience workforce training and service opportunities through the American Climate Corps – putting the program on track to reach President Biden’s goal of 20,000 members in the program’s first year ahead of schedule.

Across the country, American Climate Corps members are working on projects to tackle the climate crisis, including restoring coastal ecosystems, strengthening urban and rural agriculture, investing in clean energy and energy efficiency, improving disaster and wildfire preparedness, and more. The American Climate Corps is giving a diverse new generation of young people the tools to fight the impacts of climate change today and the skills to join the clean energy and climate-resilience workforce of tomorrow.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is making several additional announcements:

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and AmeriCorps are Announcing a New Environmental Justice Climate Corps, which will put more than 250 American Climate Corps members to work over the next three years providing technical assistance to community-based organizations in environmental justice communities – helping them access resources to carry out locally driven projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, improve public health and safety, and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges. Environmental Justice Climate Corps members will be paid a living allowance and reimbursed for selected living expenses. In total, this allowance is equivalent to receiving more than $25 per hour throughout their year of service. They will also obtain the benefits of AmeriCorps VISTA service—including the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award, which is valued at $7,395 in FY24, and streamlined pathways into certain federal jobs—and gain mentorship and professional development opportunities. Applications for the Environmental Justice Climate Corps will open in early 2025, with a goal for its first cohort to start later that year.The partnership with EPA is AmeriCorps’ largest environmental partnership in the agency’s history and will build on the success of three other partnerships announced under the American Climate Corps: AmeriCorps NCCC Forest Corps, Working Lands Climate Corps and Energy Communities AmeriCorps, which together will support more than 500 new ACC positions over the coming years.

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is Joining the ACC Interagency Initiative. Joining the seven initial signatories of the December 2023 ACC Memorandum of Understanding, today HUD will become the eighth federal agency member of the ACC Interagency Initiative. This step brings the ACC to the communities HUD serves, building upon the Department’s commitment to using low- and zero-carbon energy and supporting communities to increase their resilience, advance environmental justice, and create good jobs for residents.

• The American Climate Corps is Fostering Federal-State Partnerships by establishing a partnership with state service commissions, which support national service in states across the country, to grow the number of state climate corps and strengthen existing state climate corps programs. Together, the American Climate Corps, state-level climate corps programs, and state national service leadership are committed to strengthening state climate corps, supporting impactful program implementation, and leveraging state and local partnerships to scale climate corps efforts across the country. To date, 14 states have launched their own state-based climate corps programs, including New Jersey who just today announced the creation of the New Jersey Climate Corps. 

• American Climate Corps Will Host a Virtual Job Fair. The American Climate Corps is working to ensure that its members have a pathway to good-paying jobs following their terms of service, which is why later this year, ACC will host a virtual job fair for current and past members to learn about high-quality career opportunities in the clean energy and climate resilience economy. The virtual job fair will bring together the private sector, labor unions, and the public sector, including Federal agencies, to showcase career pathways available to ACC members.

Today’s announcements build on a year of successful program implementation, including:

• Launch of the American Climate Corps Tour. This fall, to showcase ACC members’ important work across the nation, the American Climate Corps and senior Biden-Harris Administration officials is embarking on a national tour and visiting ten locations to highlight ACC members’ impact in communities across the country.The tour is making stops at a range of ACC project sites and featuring remarks by representatives of the Biden-Harris Administration and other Federal, state, and local elected officials. Visits include ACC member swearing-in ceremonies, service projects, and roundtables with ACC members.

• Creation of the American Climate Corps Storytellers Project. Inspired by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, the ACC launched the Storytellers Project, engaging artists and storytellers to capture the impact of President Biden’s American Climate Corps.The ACC Storytellers Project solicited applications from artists across the country. Ten accomplished storytellers were selected to document the impact of the American Climate Corps in communities across the country through photographs, videos, and other visual art mediums. 

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The post FACT SHEET: During Climate Week, Biden-Harris Administration Announces Continued Progress on the American Climate Corps appeared first on The White House.

Our nation’s lakes, rivers, streams, estuaries, and wetlands are fundamental to the health, prosperity, and resilience of our communities and are held sacred by many Tribal Nations. They are not only the sources of clean drinking water that flows into the taps of our homes, but are also economic drivers supporting jobs and outdoor recreation across the nation. By absorbing and storing carbon, our nation’s waterways and wetlands – and the forests, grasslands, and farmlands they nourish – also play a critical role in the fight against climate change.

Since Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to secure clean water for all communities, protect our vital freshwater resources, and mitigate the impacts of drought. Given that communities often acutely experience the climate crisis through water-related impacts – from floods and droughts to polluted drinking sources and waterways – this Administration is making historic investments through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to protect, conserve, and restore our freshwater basins and ecosystems.

Meanwhile, many Republicans in Congress continue to deny the very existence of climate change and remain committed to repealing the President’s Inflation Reduction Act – the biggest climate protection bill ever – which would undermine the health, safety, and economic vitality of their own constituents.

Today, during Climate Week, the White House is announcing new funding and whole-of-government initiatives that build upon its ambitious freshwater agenda and help restore and conserve our freshwater resources and address climate impacts felt across the nation:

• Investing in Long-Term Colorado River Basin Resilience: The Biden-Harris Administration is leading a comprehensive effort to make Western communities more resilient to climate change and address the ongoing megadrought across the region, including the Colorado River Basin, by harnessing the full resources of President Biden’s historic Investing in America agenda. The Administration’s investments in the Lower Colorado River Basin bridge the immediate need for water conservation while moving toward improved system efficiency and more durable long-term solutions. Overall, the funding for long-term water conservation initiatives in the Lower Basin is expected to save more than 1 million acre-feet of water, putting the Basin on a path to a more resilient and sustainable water future.
  • The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation is announcing the execution of the first three contracts for long-term water conservation under the Lower Colorado Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program. Totaling approximately $107 million, taken together these first three projects – all with the Gila River Indian Community in the Lower Colorado River Basin of Arizona – will provide over 73,000 acre-feet of water conservation to support the sustainability of Lake Mead while also helping ensure long-term water resilience for the Community. The Bureau of Reclamation is also working on the companion program for the Upper Basin, which will provide additional water savings for the Basin’s long-term sustainability.
  • The Bureau of Reclamation is working with the following sponsors in the Lower Colorado Basin to negotiate water conservation contracts for ten additional proposed projects, including:
    • City of Phoenix
    • City of Tucson
    • Coachella Valley Water District
    • Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association & Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District
    • San Diego County Water Authority
    • Southern Nevada Water Authority
    • The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
    • Town of Gilbert
• The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation is also signing agreements with the Imperial Irrigation District and the Bard Water District in partnership with the Metropolitan Water District in California to ensure the conservation of up to 717,100acre-feet of water by 2026. This water will remain in Lake Mead in an effort to benefit the Colorado River System and its users.
• Investing in Indian Country: The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation has announced historic Tribal water infrastructure investments totaling over $1.2 billion through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, Reclamation Water Settlement funding, and annual appropriations. This includes a new investment of $9.4 million for Tribal drought relief and technical assistance projects that will restore wetlands, improve irrigation efficiency, and support groundwater monitoring.
  
  
• Reconnecting Waterways and Restoring Aquatic Ecosystems: With over $3 billion in funding for ecosystem restoration and fish passage projects, the Investing in America agenda is helping secure cleaner rivers, safer communities, greater recreational opportunities, and improved fish and wildlife habitat, driving change across the landscape for people, communities, species, and ecosystems.
  • The Administration is announcing a suite of 10 transformational fish passage projects that to date have received over $150 million from eight Federal agencies. When completed, these fish passage and aquatic connectivity projects – located in communities from Maine to Ohio to California – will reconnect nearly 5,000 miles of rivers and streams across the United States. Reconnecting waterways allows natural functions to be restored in freshwater systems, improving their climate resilience and water quality, and therefore their ability to protect communities from catastrophic floods, droughts, catastrophic wildfire, and water pollution. Improving fish passage and reconnecting aquatic systems is one of the most effective ways to help conserve vulnerable species, while building safer infrastructure for communities and improving climate resilience. To date, the Administration has spent over $970 million on more than 600 fish passage projects in 45 states across the country.
  • The Department of the Interior today is announcing an additional $92 million in new resources from the Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program to help restore important salmon and other native fish habitat across the West. These projects, when complete, will provide increased water quality, floodplain stability, and drought resiliency.
    
    
• Collaborating with Stakeholders to Protect Freshwater Systems: At a Climate Week NYC event focused on the Global Freshwater Challenge, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory announced a doubling of new partners in the America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge – a nationwide initiative to protect, restore, and reconnect 8 million acres of wetlands and 100,000 miles of our nation’s rivers and streams by 2030. Over 100 members from across the country initially signed on to support freshwater restoration in their communities. That number has now more than doubled to over 211, including 14 states, 16 Tribal entities, 27 local governments, and 79 private sector members.
  
  

Today’s announcements build on recent actions that deliver on the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to ensuring safe drinking water, including providing approximately $1 billion in funding to bring safe, clean water to Tribal communities; finalizing the first-ever standard to protect communities from toxic “forever chemicals,” along with rulemakings to hold polluters responsible for PFAS cleanup and to enhance safeguards against dangerous chemical spills in our nation’s waters; and continuing to deliver on President Biden’s goal to replace every lead pipe in America in the next decade. The Department of the Interior has invested more than $6.95 billion to fund over 831 Western water projects through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act; the Environmental Protection Agency has leveraged more than $9 billion in the last two years alone to communities across the West; and other agencies from the Department of Agriculture to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continue to make investments that increase water availability, reduce water use, and enhance resilience.

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