Tag Archives: Biden Administration

Biden Administration, Cybersecurity, News & Photo Features

Biden Administration Takes Steps to Promote Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence-Before It’s Too Late

With so much concern raised about the explosive increase in use of artificial intelligence, the Biden-Harris Administration announced new actions that will further promote responsible American innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) and protect people’s rights and safety. These steps build on the Administration’s strong record of leadership to ensure technology improves the lives of the American people, and break new ground in the federal government’s ongoing effort to advance a cohesive and comprehensive approach to AI-related risks and opportunities.

AI is one of the most powerful technologies of our time, but in order to seize the opportunities it presents, we must first mitigate its risks. President Biden has been clear that when it comes to AI, we must place people and communities at the center by supporting responsible innovation that serves the public good, while protecting our society, security, and economy. Importantly, this means that companies have a fundamental responsibility to make sure their products are safe before they are deployed or made public.

Vice President Harris and senior Administration officials met on May 4 with CEOs of four American companies at the forefront of AI innovation—Alphabet, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI—to underscore this responsibility and emphasize the importance of driving responsible, trustworthy, and ethical innovation with safeguards that mitigate risks and potential harms to individuals and our society. The meeting is part of a broader, ongoing effort to engage with advocates, companies, researchers, civil rights organizations, not-for-profit organizations, communities, international partners, and others on critical AI issues.

This effort builds on the considerable steps the Administration has taken to date to promote responsible innovation. These include the landmark Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and related executive actions announced last fall, as well as the AI Risk Management Framework and a roadmap for standing up a National AI Research Resource released earlier this year.

The Administration has also taken important actions to protect Americans in the AI age. In February, President Biden signed an Executive Order that directs federal agencies to root out bias in their design and use of new technologies, including AI, and to protect the public from algorithmic discrimination. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division issued a joint statement underscoring their collective commitment to leverage their existing legal authorities to protect the American people from AI-related harms.

The Administration is also actively working to address the national security concerns raised by AI, especially in critical areas like cybersecurity, biosecurity, and safety. This includes enlisting the support of government cybersecurity experts from across the national security community to ensure leading AI companies have access to best practices, including protection of AI models and networks.

The administration’s announcements include:

  • New investments to power responsible American AI research and development (R&D). The National Science Foundation is announcing $140 million in funding to launch seven new National AI Research Institutes. This investment will bring the total number of Institutes to 25 across the country, and extend the network of organizations involved into nearly every state. These Institutes catalyze collaborative efforts across institutions of higher education, federal agencies, industry, and others to pursue transformative AI advances that are ethical, trustworthy, responsible, and serve the public good. In addition to promoting responsible innovation, these Institutes bolster America’s AI R&D infrastructure and support the development of a diverse AI workforce. The new Institutes announced today will advance AI R&D to drive breakthroughs in critical areas, including climate, agriculture, energy, public health, education, and cybersecurity.
     
  • Public assessments of existing generative AI systems. The Administration is announcing an independent commitment from leading AI developers, including Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Stability AI, to participate in a public evaluation of AI systems, consistent with responsible disclosure principles—on an evaluation platform developed by Scale AI—at the AI Village at DEFCON 31. This will allow these models to be evaluated thoroughly by thousands of community partners and AI experts to explore how the models align with the principles and practices outlined in the Biden-Harris Administration’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and AI Risk Management Framework. This independent exercise will provide critical information to researchers and the public about the impacts of these models, and will enable AI companies and developers take steps to fix issues found in those models. Testing of AI models independent of government or the companies that have developed them is an important component in their effective evaluation.
     
  • Policies to ensure the U.S. government is leading by example on mitigating AI risks and harnessing AI opportunities. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is announcing that it will be releasing draft policy guidance on the use of AI systems by the U.S. government for public comment. This guidance will establish specific policies for federal departments and agencies to follow in order to ensure their development, procurement, and use of AI systems centers on safeguarding the American people’s rights and safety. It will also empower agencies to responsibly leverage AI to advance their missions and strengthen their ability to equitably serve Americans—and serve as a model for state and local governments, businesses and others to follow in their own procurement and use of AI. OMB will release this draft guidance for public comment this summer, so that it will benefit from input from advocates, civil society, industry, and other stakeholders before it is finalized.

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology
 

The Biden-Harris Administration released the United States Government’s National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology (Strategy), which will strengthen both the United States’ foundation to safeguard American consumers’ technology and U.S. leadership and competitiveness in international standards development.

Standards are the guidelines used to ensure the technology Americans routinely rely on is universally safe and interoperable. This Strategy will renew the United States’ rules-based approach to standards development. It also will emphasize the Federal Government’s support for international standards for critical and emerging technologies (CETs), which will help accelerate standards efforts led by the private sector to facilitate global markets, contribute to interoperability, and promote U.S. competitiveness and innovation.

The Strategy focuses on four key objectives that will prioritize CET standards development:

  • Investment: Technological contributions that flow from research and development are the driving force behind new standards. The Strategy will bolster investment in pre-standardization research to promote innovation, cutting-edge science, and translational research to drive U.S. leadership in international standards development. The Administration is also calling on the private sector, universities, and research institutions to make long-term investments in standards development.
     
  • Participation: Private sector and academic innovation fuels effective standards development, which is why it’s imperative that the United States to work closely with industry and the research community to remain ahead of the curve. The U.S. Government will engage with a broad range of private sector, academic, and other key stakeholders, including foreign partners, to address gaps and bolster U.S. participation in CET standards development activities.
     
  • Workforce: The number of standards organizations has grown rapidly over the past decade, particularly with respect to CETs, but the U.S. standards workforce has not kept pace. The U.S. Government will invest in educating and training stakeholders — including academia, industry, small- and medium-sized companies, and members of civil society — to more effectively contribute to technical standards development.
     
  • Integrity and Inclusivity: It is essential for the United States to ensure the standards development process is technically sound, independent, and responsive to broadly shared market and societal needs. The U.S. Government will harness the support of like-minded allies and partners around the world to promote the integrity of the international standards system to ensure that international standards are established on the basis of technical merit through fair processes that will promote broad participation from countries across the world and build inclusive growth for all.

Putting the Strategy into Practice

The U.S. private sector leads standards activities globally, through standard development organizations (SDOs), to respond to market demand, with substantial contributions from the U.S. Government, academia, and civil society groups. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) coordinates the U.S. private sector standards activities, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) coordinates Federal Government engagement in standards activities. Industry associations, consortia, and other private sector groups work together within this system to develop standards to solve specific challenges. To date, this approach has fostered an effective and innovative standards system that has supercharged economic growth and worked for people of all nations.

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (Pub. L. 117–167) provided $52.7 billion for American semiconductor research, development, manufacturing, and workforce development. The legislation also codifies NIST’s role in leading information exchange and coordination among Federal agencies and communication from the Federal Government to the U.S. private sector. This engagement, coupled with the CHIPS and Science Act’s investments in pre-standardization research, will drive U.S. influence and leadership in international standards development. NIST provides a portal with resources and standards information to government, academia, and the public; updates on the U.S. Government’s implementation efforts for the Strategy will also be posted to that portal.

The United States Government has already made significant commitments to leading and coordinating international efforts outlined in the Strategy.  The United States has joined like-minded partners in the International Standards Cooperation Network, which serves as a mechanism to connect government stakeholders with international counterparts for inter-governmental cooperation.  Additionally, the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council launched a Strategic Standardization Information mechanism to enable transatlantic information sharing. 
  
Many U.S. Government agencies have already demonstrated their commitment to the Strategy through their actions and partnerships. Examples include: 

  • The National Science Foundation has updated its proposal and award policies and procedures to incentivize participation in standards development activities. 
     
  • The Department of State, NIST, the Department of Commerce, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, USAID and other agencies engage in multilateral fora, such as the International Telecommunication Union, the Quad, the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council, the G7, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, to share information on standards and CETs.
     
  • The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) administers the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund, a $1.5 billion grant program funded by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 that aims to catalyze the research, development, and adoption of open, interoperable, and standards-based networks. 
     
  • The Department of Defense engages with ANSI and the private sector in collaborative standards activities such as Global Supply Chain Security for Microelectronics and the Additive Manufacturing Standards Roadmap, as well as with the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
     
  • The United States Agency for International Development and ANSI work together through a public-private partnership to support the capacity of developing countries in areas of standards development, conformity assessment, and private sector engagement.
     
  • The Environmental Protection Agency SmartWay program works closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to standardize greenhouse gas accounting for freight and passenger transportation, providing a global framework for credible, accurate calculation and evaluation of transportation-related climate pollutants.
     
  • NTIA, NIST, and the FCC coordinate U.S. Government participation in 3GPP and work with the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions to ensure participation by international standards delegates at North American-hosted 3GPP meetings.
     
  • The FCC’s newly established Office of International Affairs is managing efforts across the FCC to ensure expert participation in international standards activities, such as 3GPP and the Internet Engineering Task Force, in order to promote U.S. leadership in 5G and other next-generation technologies.
     
  • The Department of Transportation supports development of voluntary consensus technical standards via multiple cooperative efforts with U.S.-domiciled and international SDOs.
     
  • The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), though partnerships with the private sector and the contributions of technical experts at DOE and its 17 National Laboratories, contributes to standards efforts in multiple areas ranging from hydrogen and energy storage to biotechnology and high-performance computing.
     
  • The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Financial Research leads and contributes to financial data standards development work for digital identity, digital assets, and distributed ledger technology in ISO and ANSI.

The actions laid out in the Strategy align with principles set forth in the National Security Strategy, the National Cybersecurity Strategy, and ANSI’s United States Standards Strategy, and will not only protect the integrity of standards development, but will ensure the long-term success of the United States’ innovation.

Biden Administration, Gun Violence Prevention, News & Photo Features

Biden Announces 13 New Actions to Reduce Gun Violence by Maximizing the Benefits of Safer Communities Act

“Stop mass shootings,” March for Our Lives, New York City 2022. President Biden won the first gun control legislation in 30 years, the Safer Communities Act, and is now announcing 13 actions under the law to reduce gun violence and save lives. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Taking stock of the horror of gun violence that has taken too many mothers, too many children, and broken too many families, President Biden on Mothers Day (and the one-year anniversary of the Buffalo massacre at Topps Grocery and the Uvalde school massacre two weeks later) announced 13 actions the Biden-Harris Administration is taking to implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act  (the first gun control law to pass in 30 years) and maximize the benefits of the law, reducing gun violence and saving lives by keeping guns out of dangerous hands. – Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

President Joe Biden announced 13 actions he is implementing under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to reduce gun violence and save lives by keeping guns out of dangerous hands. These include:

Keeping guns out of dangerous hands

The White House, in partnership with DOJ, will convene state and local law enforcement leaders to solicit their collaboration on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) implementation priorities, such as: 1) increasing state and local law enforcement agencies’ response rates to enhanced background check inquiries when someone under age 21 tries to purchase a gun; and 2) ensuring that arrest and adjudication records include additional documentation of dating relationships to keep more guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.

The White House, in partnership with DOJ, will convene state legislators and governors’ offices, urging them to enact laws allowing the federal background check system to access all records that could prohibit someone under age 21 from purchasing a firearm.

DOJ is working with state and territory governments and local law enforcement agencies to increase their response rates to the federal background check system inquiries when someone under age 21 tries to purchase a gun. DOJ has held 18 webinars to date, attended by more than 500 law enforcement agencies, and has nine more planned.

DOJ is training federal law enforcement and educating state and local law enforcement and prosecutors on the need for additional documentation of dating relationships in domestic abuse cases in order to implement BSCA’s provision that narrowed the “boyfriend loophole,” helping to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.

Ensuring BSCA’s mental health funding helps those dealing with the grief and trauma resulting from gun violence

The Secretaries of HHS and ED will urge governors to use BSCA and Medicaid’s funding to help schools address the trauma and mental health challenges resulting from gun violence.

HHS will educate health and social service providers, community leaders, and other individuals on the effects that gun violence trauma can have on communities.

HHS will clarify how early childhood providers can use BSCA funding to address mental health and gun violence trauma.

HHS will highlight stories of how communities are effectively using BSCA’s mental health funding to help those impacted by gun violence, in order to encourage other communities to adopt those strategies and effectively use BSCA’s resources.

HHS will meet with trauma program grantees and select community members and providers to gather community-level data pertaining to the link between exposure to gun violence and trauma. Lessons learned will inform HHS’ future program development, and a report HHS will make available to other communities.

As part of the school-based services Technical Assistance Center established under BSCA, HHS and ED will jointly develop resources for states and schools regarding how schools can use Medicaid to fund school-based health services to help students dealing with the physical and emotional impacts of gun violence.

Making schools safer

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will launch a dedicated public campaign to bring greater awareness to SchoolSafety.gov and its available resources and evidence-based practices. The campaign will be geared towards K-12 leaders, school administrators, teachers, school personnel, and parents and legal guardians.

ED has taken several steps to help states and school districts make effective use of BSCA’s $1 billion Stronger Connections Grant Program to improve school safety. For example, ED hosted a four-part webinar series that highlighted evidence-based practices for supporting student safety and well-being and published extensive Frequently Asked Questions to help states and school districts understand how they can effectively use this funding to ensure all schools are safe and welcoming to all students.

Expanding community violence interventions

To help communities maximize the benefits of BSCA’s community violence intervention funding, DOJ hosted a five-part webinar series to help local leaders use evidence-informed strategies to reduce violence.

Highlights of Progress Made to Implement BSCA

Keeping guns out of dangerous hands

DOJ has invested resources to investigate and prosecute violations of BSCA’s new provisions related to firearms trafficking and straw purchasing (purchasing a firearm for another person who is prohibited from buying the gun). DOJ is coordinating with non-DOJ federal law enforcement agencies to identify criminal investigations eligible for application of these criminal authorities. As a result, DOJ has already charged more than 60 defendants for violating these provisions and seized hundreds of firearms in connection with those cases. For example:

Multiple Men Indicted in Utah for Firearm Offenses, Including Allegedly Attempting to Smuggle 34 Guns into Mexico

Mexican Resident Sent to Prison for Trafficking Firearms Under New Law

Four Gun Traffickers Charged with Selling Over 50 Firearms in Brooklyn

Federal, State, and Local Law Enforcement Join Forces to Disrupt Violent Crime, Firearms, and Drug Trafficking in Multiple Jurisdictions Across the Country

Nine Men Charged with Roles in Gang-Led Drug and Gun Trafficking Network

Federal Firearms Licensee and Boston Man Indicted for Firearm Trafficking and Straw Purchasing Conspiracy

Two charged in scheme to illegally purchase firearms and transfer them to others

Federal Prosecutors Aggressively Pursuing Those Who Lie in Connection With Firearm Transactions

In part due to BSCA’s revised definition of who is “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms, DOJ’s prosecutions for unlicensed dealing increased 52% from FY 2021 to FY 2022. DOJ is on track to maintain this elevated level in FY 2023.

DOJ has implemented BSCA’s enhanced firearms background checks for individuals under the age of 21 in all 43 jurisdictions where the federal government processes background checks. Since November 2022, DOJ has conducted more than 89,000 of these checks and denied more than 160 firearms transactions solely because of BSCA. Out of the 13 states that process their own background checks, 10 states have fully implemented the enhanced background checks. DOJ is providing technical assistance in the remaining three states.

DOJ awarded over $230 million for state crisis intervention programs, including extreme risk protection orders (also known as red flag laws), to temporarily keep guns out of the hands of those who are a danger to themselves or others. This funding is supporting communities in 49 states, territories, and the District of Columbia.

The federal gun background check system (the National Instant Criminal Background Check System) implemented BSCA’s updated definition of misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, which now includes qualifying dating relationships to keep more guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.

DOJ has provided multiple trainings for federal prosecutors and federal law-enforcement agents on a number of BSCA’s provisions, including the updated definition of “engaged in the business,” the new straw purchasing and firearms trafficking provisions, and the expanded definition of misdemeanor crime of domestic violence to include abusive dating partners.

Improving school safety

DOJ awarded almost $60 million in BSCA grants to support school safety. This funding will help institute safety measures in and around schools, support school violence prevention efforts, provide training to school personnel and students, implement evidence-based threat assessments, and fund research and evaluation on the causes and consequences of school violence.

ED awarded states nearly $1 billion from BSCA’s Stronger Connections grant program to support schools in providing students with safer and healthier learning environments and support students’ social, emotional, physical, and mental well-being. Per BSCA, states are tasked with developing competitions for high-need school districts to apply for funding, which they may use for purposes such as expanding school-based mental health services, addressing the physical security of schools, providing safety and violence prevention programs, and creating and implementing emergency operating plans. States are in the process of awarding these grants now.

ED awarded BSCA’s $50 million in funding for out-of-school time programs to use to increase attendance and engagement of students in the middle and high school grades.

Improving access to mental health care

HHS has already awarded nearly $400 million in BSCA funding to increase mental health services in the community, expand school-based mental health services, expand and strengthen the mental health workforce, and improve mental health crisis services. For example:

HHS awarded $60 million to help better equip primary care residents to provide behavioral health care. This funding is anticipated to support approximately 3,500 residents over five years.

HHS awarded $18 million to 49 states, jurisdictions, and Tribes to provide technical assistance and enhance the pediatric mental health care workforce’s capacity to make early identification, diagnosis, treatment and referral of behavioral conditions a routine part of children’s health care services; particularly in pediatric, emergency services and schools.

HHS awarded $59.4 million in supplemental Community Mental Health Block Grant funding to states, helping to expand access to prevention, treatment, and crisis services.

HHS awarded $57.7 million in Mental Health Awareness Training grants to prepare and train school personnel, emergency first responders, law enforcement, and others to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health challenges and enable early intervention.

HHS awarded $19.5 million to National Child Traumatic Stress Network to improve treatment and services for children, adolescents, and families who have experienced traumatic events.

HHS awarded $73.6 million for Project Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education (Project AWARE) to help develop and support school-based mental health programs and services. This program will promote the healthy social and emotional development of school-aged youth and prevent youth violence in school settings.

HHS awarded $20 million in Resiliency in Communities after Stress and Trauma grants to promote resilience and equity and prevent violence in communities that have recently faced civil unrest, community violence, and/or collective trauma.

With the help of BSCA, ED has awarded more than $280 million in funding to bolster the pipeline of mental health professionals serving in schools and expand school-based mental health services and supports in schools. Grantees project that these funds will put more than 14,000 new mental health professionals in U.S. schools – including school psychologists, counselors, and social workers.

Expanding community violence interventions

DOJ awarded $50 million in BSCA funding – combined with $50 million in bipartisan omnibus appropriations – through the federal government’s first-ever standalone community violence intervention grant program. Combined, this $100 million is helping 47 sites across 24 states and territories.

Biden Administration, Economic Policies, Economy, Federal Budget

White House Memo: Extreme MAGA House Republicans Holding Hostage Jobs, State by State

The Congressional Republicans show extreme lack of concern over the number of jobs that will be lost if they push the US into the brink of defaulting on debts. As Trump said in his CNN Town Hall, “I say to the Republicans out there – if they don’t give you massive cuts, you have to do a default” and this person who actually served as president, presided over three increases to the debt ceiling without Democrats holding the economy hostage, growing the national debt accrued over its entire history by 40 PERCENT, said that America’s first default in history, violating the 14th amendment’s requirement to meet its debt obligations, would result in “maybe a bad week or a bad day.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Memo

RE: The jobs extreme MAGA House Republicans’ are holding hostage in every state  

Date: 5/10/2013

From: Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates

A new report from Moody’s Analytics shows how many jobs would be killed in every state if House Republicans follow through on their threat to single-handedly trigger the only debt default in American history.

That is, unless they are allowed to force a radical agenda that the American people reject into law.

That radical agenda includes the most draconian cuts to veterans services in American history, shipping the manufacturing jobs we are bringing back from overseas to China, firing thousands of Border Patrol agents, taking health care from millions, and laying off teachers across the country. Keep in mind that they still intend to follow those cuts with enormous, wasteful tax giveaways to billionaires and multinational corporations.

In Speaker McCarthy’s home state of California, even a short-term default would kill over 300,000 jobs. And that a prolonged default would kill nearly a million.  

President Biden is in New York today, which would lose almost half a million jobs, calling on Republicans to stop their economic hostage-taking.  

In addition to threatening to sabotage the American economy and subject countless innocent Americans to financial pain, House Republicans have manufactured a political and credibility crisis for themselves.

House Republicans are more and more isolated in their willingness to trigger a default. As President Biden mentioned last night, Senate Republican leader underlined that the United States cannot ever default.

Last night even Speaker McCarthy himself acknowledged, “A budget is different than a debt ceiling.”

That’s true and consistent with the Speaker’s voting record. He voted, without conditions and on a bipartisan basis, to avoid default for the entire Trump Administration AND for the majority of the Obama presidency.

House Republicans are effectively holding a gun to the head of millions of jobs, small businesses, and retirement savings, while simultaneously shouting at everyone else, ‘don’t pull this trigger.’ Meanwhile, all their constituents look on and see how much it would cost every state. No one’s making you do it. Put the gun down.   

StateJob Loss in Prolonged Default Scenario (thousands, peak to trough)
Alaska11.3
Alabama109.5
Arkansas68.8
Arizona188.1
California841.6
Colorado139.3
Connecticut75.6
DC28.5
Delaware21.4
Florida474.7
Georgia249.4
Hawaii16.9
Iowa73.9
Idaho44.4
Illinois290.6
Indiana164.8
Kansas72.5
Kentucky113.9
Louisiana69.4
Massachusetts175
Maryland119.7
Maine31.7
Michigan239.4
Minnesota138.8
Missouri163.7
Mississippi64
Montana23.5
North Carolina236.1
North Dakota18.8
Nebraska45.7
New Hampshire34.8
New Jersey193.4
New Mexico37.5
Nevada90
New York398.3
Ohio296.5
Oklahoma77.3
Oregon104.2
Pennsylvania269
Rhode Island23.2
South127.5
South22.1
Tennessee179
Texas561.7
Utah80.4
Virginia195.4
Vermont14.1
Washington187.8
Wisconsin153.6
West Virginia34.4
Wyoming14.4
Total7405.6
Biden Administration, Climate Action, Climate Change

FACT SHEET: President Catalyzes Global Climate Action through the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate

President Joe Biden  highlighted how the United States is addressing these four priority areas at home through measures including the Inflation Reduction Act – the largest U.S. investment ever in reducing U.S. emissions, accelerating the clean energy economy, and protecting communities from climate impacts – and how these efforts are creating good-paying jobs and building a more secure and sustainable clean energy economy. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.

Ahead of Earth Day 2023, President Biden convened leaders of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) for the fourth time since taking office to galvanize efforts needed to tackle the climate crisis and keep a 1.5°C limit on warming within reach. The White House provided this fact sheet highlighting steps the United States is taking to meet its emissions goals and to support developing countries:

President Joe Biden highlighted new steps the United States is taking to meet its ambitious 1.5°C-aligned goal of reducing emissions 50-52 percent in 2030.  The President also announced significant new steps the United States is taking to support developing countries in taking stronger climate action – including providing $1 billion to the Green Climate Fund and requesting $500 million for the Amazon Fund and related activities – and invite other countries to join the United States and others in fully leveraging the multilateral development banks to better address global challenges, like climate change.

The President was joined by other leaders in new efforts aimed at accelerating progress in four key areas necessary for keeping a 1.5°C limit on warming within reach, specifically:

  • Decarbonizing energy:  Announcing steps to drive down emissions in the power and transportation sectors, including scaling up of clean energy, setting ambitious 2030 zero-emission vehicle goals, and decarbonizing international shipping.
     
  • Ending deforestation of the Amazon and other critical forests:  Working through the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership to mobilize public, private, and philanthropic support.
     
  • Tackling potent, non-CO2 climate pollutants:  Launching a Methane Finance Sprint to cut methane emissions and accelerating hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) phasedown under the Kigali Amendment.
     
  • Advancing carbon management:  Partnering with countries to accelerate carbon capture, removal, use, and storage technologies through a COP 28 Carbon Management Challenge to deal with emissions that can’t otherwise be avoided.

To help frame the MEF discussion, leaders were briefed by Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), on a new report  to the MEF highlighting why action in these areas between now and 2030 is critical to preserve credible pathways to limit warming to 1.5 °C by 2100.

MEF economies account for roughly 80 percent of global GDP and global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  Since being reconvened by President Biden in April 2021, the MEF has helped galvanize the global climate response, contributing to the progress achieved at the United Nations Climate Conferences in Glasgow (COP 26) and Sharm El-Sheikh (COP 27). 

However, the most recent findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change underscore more urgently than ever that the window for decisive action to avert the gravest consequences of climate change is quickly narrowing. 

The President  highlighted how the United States is addressing these four priority areas at home through measures including the Inflation Reduction Act – the largest U.S. investment ever in reducing U.S. emissions, accelerating the clean energy economy, and protecting communities from climate impacts – and how these efforts are creating good-paying jobs and building a more secure and sustainable clean energy economy.

In addition to partnering on new joint efforts, leaders were expected to announce other new steps their countries are taking to fulfill their nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement.  The President will encourage those countries whose 2030 Paris targets are not yet aligned with keeping 1.5 °C within reach to strengthen their targets by COP 28 this November in Dubai.

Strengthening Support for Climate Action in Developing Countries

Providing $1 Billion to the Green Climate Fund

In 2021, President Biden pledged to work with Congress to quadruple U.S. climate support for developing countries to more than $11 billion a year by 2024.  As part of this broader effort, today, the President will announce that the United States is providing $1 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), bringing total U.S. contributions to the GCF to $2 billion.

Since 2015, the GCF has approved over $12 billion for projects across more than 125 developing countries to accelerate clean energy transitions, build resilience in the most vulnerable countries, and catalyze private investment.  These projects are expected to reduce 2.5 billion tons of emissions and increase the resilience of over 900 million people.  The GCF has a specific mandate to support countries particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including least developed countries, small island developing states, and African nations.

Mobilizing the Multilateral Development Banks to Usher in a New Era of Clean Growth

Following important steps taken last week by the World Bank, President Biden will encourage leaders to support a strengthened effort this year to fully leverage the capacity of the multilateral development banks (MDBs) to address global challenges, including climate change, while accelerating progress on reducing poverty and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.  The United States is working with the MDBs to evolve their visions, incentive structures, operational approaches, and financial capacity to better meet pressing global challenges.

Decarbonizing Energy

Succeeding in keeping the 1.5 °C goal within reach will require accelerating progress in key energy-related sectors, such as electric power and transportation.

Putting the Power Sector on a Path to Net Zero Emissions

Limiting warming to 1.5°C will require steep and immediate reductions in energy sector CO2 emissions, including an accelerated scale up of clean energy technologies to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century. 

President Biden has set an ambitious U.S. goal of achieving a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and net zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.  As a result of the historic investments in the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as well as other actions the Administration is taking, the United States is on a clear path to achieve this goal, while reducing costs for consumers, lowering harmful pollutants, mitigating climate change, and creating new economic opportunities.  Today, the U.S. released a new National Innovation Pathway Report, highlighting the Biden-Harris Administration’s all-hands-on-deck strategy for accelerating key clean energy technology innovations.  The Administration is advancing a three-pronged approach that prioritizes innovation, demonstration, and deployment to scale the technologies the United States needs to achieve its goals of a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by no later than 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.

To accelerate global progress, President Biden will invite leaders to announce steps they are taking to put their energy sectors on a path aligned with the 1.5 °C goal.

Reducing Emissions and Fossil Fuel Use by Accelerating Zero-Emission Vehicle Deployment

The transportation sector is a large and fast-growing source of greenhouse gases globally.  Rapidly scaling up production and use of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) will slash emissions, reduce oil dependence, strengthen energy security, protect economies from oil price volatility, and accelerate the phaseout of unabated fossil fuels.  Faster ZEV deployment will also improve public health by reducing emissions of conventional pollutants.  Thanks to technology innovations, the historic investments in the Inflation Reduction Act, and additional investments made by automakers and throughout the battery supply chain, the U.S. transportation sector is rapidly shifting towards zero emission vehicles.

The Inflation Reduction Act contains new and expanded tax credits for drivers to purchase new clean vehicles, as well as the first-ever tax credits for purchasing used clean vehicles.  These tax provisions will help make clean vehicles more accessible and affordable for American families while incentivizing automakers to build secure, reliable, trusted supply chains for the critical minerals and batteries contained in those vehicles.

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed new vehicle emissions standards that would build on this progress and accelerate the ongoing transition to a clean vehicle future.  The EPA projects that, under the proposed standards, electric vehicles could account for 67% of new light-duty vehicle (LDV) sales and 46% of new medium-duty vehicle sales in model year 2032.  This would avoid nearly 10 billion tons of CO2 emissions through 2055 (equivalent to nearly twice the total U.S. CO2 emissions in 2022), save the average consumer $12,000 over the lifetime of a light-duty vehicle, reduce oil imports by approximately 20 billion barrels, and improve air quality, especially in communities that have borne the burden of polluted air. 

To accelerate this transition globally, President Biden will invite leaders to join the United States in a collective goal aiming to ensure that by 2030 over 50 percent of LDVs and at least 30 percent of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs) sold globally will be zero-emissions vehicles (e.g., battery electric, fuel cell electric, and plug-in hybrid vehicles).  Countries joining in the collective goal will set their own national 2030 LDV and MHDV market share goals by COP 28.

Decarbonizing International Shipping

Greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector are significant, increasing, and incompatible with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 °C.  If shipping were a “country,” it would be among the top ten largest emitters.  As part of the Green Shipping Challenge highlighted at last year’s MEF leaders meeting, countries, ports, and companies offered more than 40 concrete announcements at COP 27 on the steps they are taking this decade to help put the shipping sector on a path to align with the 1.5 °C goal.

In July, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will adopt a Revised IMO Greenhouse Gas Strategy to accelerate efforts to decarbonize shipping.  Today, President Biden will ask leaders to join the United States in supporting the IMO’s adoption of 1.5 °C-aligned goals for the sector, including a goal of zero emissions from international shipping no later than 2050.

Ending Deforestation of the Amazon and Other Critical Forests

Ending forest loss, particularly in the tropics, is vital for limiting warming to 1.5 °C.  The Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use calls for halting and reversing forest loss and land degradation by 2030.  The United States is taking decisive action to prevent deforestation at home and abroad, as called for in the President’s Executive Order on “Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies.”

Contributing to Brazil’s Amazon Fund 

The President announced he was requesting $500 million over five years for the Amazon Fund and related activities in the context of Brazil’s renewed commitment to end deforestation by 2030. The President also will call on other leaders to pledge support to the Amazon Fund.

The U.S. Development Finance Corporation also announced that it is working on a $50 million debt investment in BTG Pactual’s Restoration Strategy, which would help mobilize $1 billion to support the restoration of nearly 300,000 hectares of degraded lands in Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile.  Conservation International will serve as the impact advisor on the pathbreaking project, which will set aside half the restored lands for permanent protection, with the other half to be managed for sustainable forestry, generating an estimated 35 million tonnes of carbon sequestration over 15 years.

Marshalling Global Action to Stop Deforestation

The Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP), which was launched at COP 27 and is co-led by the United States, aims to mobilize stronger action to end deforestation and to strengthen support from donor governments, philanthropy, the private sector, and multilateral finance institutions. To help protect other critical forest basins around the globe, President Biden will call on other leaders to join the United States in committing to work through the FCLP this year to coordinate and catalyze investment and support by COP 28 to advance implementation of ambitious forest, climate, and nature actions in forest countries.

To further advance the President’s commitments on combatting international deforestation associated with agriculture commodity production and the reduction of global deforestation, the U.S. government is working to identify potential approaches to address globally traded commodities associated with international deforestation as well as identify potential action to reduce global deforestation, as called for in the President’s Executive Order.

Leading at Home by Strengthening America’s Forests

America’s forests play a key role in achieving our domestic climate goals, absorbing carbon dioxide equivalent to more than 10% of U.S. annual greenhouse gas emissions.  To advance the President’s commitment to strengthening America’s forests, today the U.S. is announcing critical new steps to better manage our domestic forests for climate resilience, following the completion of a first-ever nationwide inventory of old and mature forests.
 
Tackling Potent Non-CO2 Climate Pollutants

In addition to cutting CO2, rapid reductions of other GHG emissions are essential to keep 1.5 °C within reach.  Methane and other non-CO2 GHGs are potent climate pollutants with short atmospheric lifetimes.  Rapidly reducing them would have an outsized impact on near-term warming.

Accelerating Methane Action to Reduce Global Warming by at least 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2050

Since being introduced by the United States and the European Union at the MEF leaders meeting in September 2021, 150 countries have now joined the Global Methane Pledge, with the goal of cutting anthropogenic methane emissions at least 30 percent by 2030.  More than 50 countries have developed, or are developing, national methane action plans, and many new projects are underway to drive methane reductions in the key sectors of fossil energy, waste, and agriculture and food.

To support and accelerate these efforts, President Biden will invite other countries to join the United States in a new Methane Finance Sprint with the aim of scaling up methane finance, including by raising at least $200 million in new public and philanthropic donor support for developing countries by COP 28.  Philanthropies have committed to dedicate $100 million in new funding through the Global Methane Hub towards the $200 million goal.  To complement these efforts, the private sector and other financial institutions will also be invited to join this effort.  The President also will invite leaders to report on steps their countries are taking to strengthen their national methane reduction efforts.

Expediting the Phasedown of Super-Polluting HFCs to Avoid up to Half a degree Celsius of Warming by 2100

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), widely used in refrigeration and air-conditioning, are thousands of times more powerful as greenhouse gases than CO2.  In October, with bipartisan Senate support, the United States ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which aims to phase down global production and consumption of HFCs.  Other countries participating in today’s MEF meeting that have ratified Kigali over the past year include Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Italy, and the Republic of Korea.

Full implementation of the Kigali Amendment could avoid up to half a degree of warming by 2100.  According to the U.N. Environment Programme, fully seizing opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of cooling appliances alongside HFC phasedown could as much as double the Kigali Amendment’s climate benefits.

To promote rapid implementation of the Kigali Amendment, President Biden will call on other countries to ratify the amendment as soon as possible, consider expedited timelines for their phasedown of HFCs, and pledge support to use the Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund to incentivize early action on HFCs and maximize parallel cooling efficiency improvements.

Accelerating Carbon Capture and Removal Technologies

In addition to full-scale mitigation efforts – including accelerated deployment of clean energy, ending deforestation, and cutting non-CO2 emissions – keeping a 1.5 °C warming limit within reach will require responsible deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies.  CCUS has a critical role to play in decarbonizing the global economy, particularly the industrial sector, where process emissions are more difficult to address.  Combating climate change will also require addressing legacy emissions and removing CO2 from the ambient air, through CDR.  The IEA estimates that roughly 1.2 Gt of CCUS and CDR will be needed by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5°C.  If global temperature rise exceeds 1.5°C, the use of CDR to remove CO2 from the atmosphere will be necessary to return global temperatures to 1.5 °C by the end of the century. 

Dealing with Emissions that Can’t Otherwise be Avoided

To accelerate these critical technologies, the Inflation Reduction Act provides tax credits of $85 per tonne of CO2 captured and stored and $180 for every tonne of CO2 removed through direct air capture and permanently stored.  In addition, President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included over $12 billion in investments in next-generation carbon capture, direct air capture, integrated CCUS demonstrations, and industrial emissions reduction demonstration projects, as well as CO2 transport and storage infrastructure.

To build on these efforts, the President will invite other countries to join the Carbon Management Challenge, with the aim of unveiling at COP 28 a suite of concrete announcements and goals that will accelerate CCUS and CDR internationally.

Throughout Earth Week, President Biden, Vice President Harris and other Cabinet-level officials held events and announcing commitments focused on how the President’s Investing in America agenda is powering an American manufacturing and clean energy boom, lowering prices, creating good-paying jobs in clean energy industries, meeting our climate goals, and advancing environmental justice and conservation.

Biden Administration, Climate Action, Climate Change, Earth Day, Environment, Environmental Protection

FACT SHEET: Biden Signs Executive Order to Revitalize Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All

Pittsburgh’s dirty coal legacy. On the day before Earth Day 2023, standing beside environmental justice leaders, climate advocates and community leaders in the Rose Garden, President Biden  announced bold new actions to protect the health and environment of communities across America, including a new executive order making environmental justice the mission of every single executive agency. The executive order will direct agencies to address gaps in science and data to better understand and prevent the cumulative impacts of pollution on people’s health. It will create a new Office of Environmental Justice in the White House to coordinate all environmental justice efforts across the federal government. And it will require agencies to notify nearby communities in the event of a release of toxic substances from a federal facility. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
 

President Biden has done more than any prior president to tackle the climate crisis.

On the day before Earth Day 2023, standing beside environmental justice leaders, climate advocates and community leaders in the Rose Garden, President Biden announced bold new actions to protect the health and environment of communities across America, including a new executive order making environmental justice the mission of every single executive agency. The executive order will direct agencies to address gaps in science and data to better understand and prevent the cumulative impacts of pollution on people’s health. It will create a new Office of Environmental Justice in the White House to coordinate all environmental justice efforts across the federal government. And it will require agencies to notify nearby communities in the event of a release of toxic substances from a federal facility.

Vice President Kamala Harris is traveling to Florida to announce new investments as part of the President’s Investing in America agenda to strengthen coastal resilience to climate change impacts and extreme storms – this after record flooding in Fort Lauderdale.

The announcements come on the heels of a new report showing that the private sector has announced and advanced more than 190 clean energy projects nationwide since the President signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, totaling more than $242 billion in investments.

The President also is highlighting how his historic environmental justice and climate agenda stands in stark contrast to the dangerous vision Speaker McCarthy and his extreme caucus have for our planet, our economy, and public health:

  • While we’re lowering costs for American families through clean energy tax credits, extreme MAGA Republicans are safeguarding handouts for Big Oil companies.
  • While we’re creating thousands of clean energy jobs in communities across America, extreme MAGA Republicans are fighting to send those jobs back to China.
  • While we’re cleaning up toxic pollution at Superfund sites and brownfields, extreme MAGA Republicans are fighting to make it easier for oil and gas companies to pollute the air we breathe.
  • While we’re replacing lead pipes so all Americans have clean water to drink, extreme MAGA Republicans want to make it easier for refineries to use toxic chemicals like hydrofluoric acid, which causes severe burns, damages people’s eyes, and literally melts bones.
  • While we’re plugging millions of orphaned wells that emit methane and other dangerous gases, extreme MAGA Republicans would allow mining and energy companies to store hazardous waste without a permit.

Speaker McCarthy and his extreme caucus’ proposals, including H.R. 1, would be a climate and health disaster that President Biden won’t allow on his watch.

As House Republicans move to extort a repeal of President Joe Biden’s historic investment in climate action by holding out raising the debt limit which would crash the global economy and cause massive rise in interest rates, Biden has revitalized a national commitment to environmental justice for all. The White House provided this fact sheet: –Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that every person has a right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in a healthy community – now and into the future. During his first week in office, President Biden launched the most ambitious environmental justice agenda in our nation’s history. To continue delivering on that vision, today the President will sign an executive order further embedding environmental justice into the work of federal agencies to achieve real, measurable progress that communities can count on.
 
The Executive Order is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government effort to confront longstanding environmental injustices and inequities. For far too long, communities across our country have faced persistent environmental injustice through toxic pollution, underinvestment in infrastructure and critical services, and other disproportionate environmental harms often due to a legacy of racial discrimination including redlining. These communities with environmental justice concerns face even greater burdens due to climate change.
 
With this action, the President is working to ensure that all people – regardless of race, background, income, ability, Tribal affiliation, or zip code – can benefit from the vital safeguards enshrined in our nation’s foundational environmental and civil rights laws. That means cleaner air and water, reduced risk for asthma, cancer, and other health burdens, and better access to green space, safe and affordable housing, and clean transportation.
 
For President Biden, protecting our planet starts with ensuring everyone lives in a safe and healthy environment. Throughout Earth Week, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and other Cabinet-level officials are holding events and announcing commitments focused on how the President’s Investing in America agenda is creating good-paying clean energy jobs, lowering costs, meeting our climate goals, advancing environmental justice and conservation, and strengthening communities that for too long were left behind or left out.
 
The new Executive Order, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, will:

  • Deepen the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government commitment to environmental justice. The new Executive Order makes clear that the pursuit of environmental justice is a duty of all executive branch agencies and should be incorporated into their missions. It also affirms that environmental justice is central to the implementation of our bedrock civil rights and environmental laws.
     
  • Better protect overburdened communities from pollution and environmental harms. The Executive Order directs agencies to consider measures to address and prevent disproportionate and adverse environmental and health impacts on communities, including the cumulative impacts of pollution and other burdens like climate change. Additionally, it requires agencies to notify nearby communities in the event of a release of toxic substances from a federal facility, and to hold a public meeting to share information on resulting health risks and necessary precautions.
     
  • Strengthen engagement with communities and mobilize federal agencies to confront existing and legacy barriers and injustices. Communities with environmental justice concerns have long experienced exclusion and other significant barriers to having a voice in federal decision-making. The Executive Order recognizes this reality and that racism is a fundamental driver of environmental injustice. It directs agencies to actively facilitate meaningful public participation and just treatment of all people in agency decision-making. The Executive Order also underscores the vital importance of Tribal consultation and coordination, including to strengthen nation-to-nation relationships on issues involving environmental justice.
     
  • Promote the latest science, data, and research, including on cumulative impacts. The Executive Order directs agencies to identify and address gaps in science, data, and research related to environmental justice, to advance the analysis of cumulative impacts, and to make information on environmental and health concerns more publicly accessible to communities. To address the need for a coordinated strategy for identifying and filling environmental justice data and research gaps, the Executive Order establishes a new Environmental Justice Subcommittee within the National Science and Technology Council, led by the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
     
  • Expand interagency coordination and launch a new Office of Environmental Justice within the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Building on Executive Order 14008, the Executive Order adds agencies to the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council to further a whole-of-government strategy to address current and historic environmental injustice. The Executive Order also establishes the White House Office of Environmental Justice, led by the Federal Chief Environmental Justice Officer, and tasks it with coordinating the implementation of environmental justice policy across the federal government, ensuring that federal efforts can evolve alongside our understanding of environmental justice.
     
  • Increase accountability and transparency in federal environmental justice policy. The Executive Order charges federal agencies with conducting new assessments of their environmental justice efforts and developing, implementing, and periodically updating an environmental justice strategic plan. These Environmental Justice Strategic Plans and Assessments will be submitted to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and made public on a regular basis, including through the Environmental Justice Scorecard, a new government-wide assessment of federal agencies’ efforts to advance environmental justice.
     
  • Honor and build on the foundation of ongoing environmental justice work. Under the Executive Order, agencies will continue their efforts to advance environmental justice in ways that complement and deepen prior work. The Executive Order uses the term “disproportionate and adverse” as a simpler, modernized version of the phrase “disproportionately high and adverse” used in Executive Order 12898. Those phrases have the same meaning, but removing the word “high” eliminates potential misunderstanding that agencies should only be considering large disproportionate effects.

This action follows through on President Biden’s promise to modernize and improve how the federal government confronts environmental injustice to address the needs of present and future generations – a promise he made following meaningful engagement with communities with environmental justice concerns and solidified in Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. The Executive Order reflects the values, goals, and recommendations of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC), an expert body of leaders, researchers, practitioners, and community members. In line with the WHEJAC’s recommendations, the Executive Order outlines an ambitious approach to environmental justice that is informed by scientific research, high-quality data, and meaningful engagement with communities. It also reaffirms that the federal government must continue to be transparent and accountable for its actions.
 
The Executive Order builds on and supplements the foundational efforts of Executive Order 12898, signed by President Bill Clinton nearly 30 years ago. For the first time in our nation’s history, Executive Order 12898 recognized and sought to address what community members and leaders had been saying for decades: harmful pollution disproportionally impacts low-income communities and communities of color, among other vulnerable communities.
 
In addition to the Executive Order, today the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing other new steps to further the President’s historic commitment to environmental justice:

  • Publishing the first-ever Environmental Justice Scorecard. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), CEQ, and the U.S. Digital Service are publishing Phase One of the Environmental Justice Scorecard, the first government-wide assessment of federal agencies’ efforts to advance environmental justice. The first version of the Scorecard establishes a baseline for tracking the federal government’s efforts through 24 agencies to secure environmental justice, including to advance the Justice40 Initiative. Over time, it will show how the Administration’s actions are making meaningful changes in communities. The Scorecard incorporates recommendations from the WHEJAC and feedback from the public, environmental justice stakeholders, and experts.
     
  • Launching the White House Campaign for Environmental Justice. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring that people are seeing and experiencing the impacts of the President’s environmental justice agenda in their communities. To strengthen partnerships with communities that have been left behind for too long, the Administration is announcing the White House Campaign for Environmental Justice. The campaign, which is being kicked off today at the launch of the 21st Urban Waters Federal Partnership in Raleigh, North Carolina, will redouble the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to meet people where they are and better focus agency resources and attention on the needs of marginalized and overburdened communities.
     
  • Announcing new Justice40 covered programs. Through the Justice40 Initiative, the Biden-Harris Administration is reshaping hundreds of federal programs to ensure that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities. Today three additional agencies, the Department of Commerce, the National Science Foundation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), announced their Justice40 covered programs. Now nearly 470 programs across nineteen federal agencies are covered under the President’s Justice40 Initiative.
     
  • Taking new steps to combat plastic pollution in communities. The Biden-Harris Administration recognizes that the plastic pollution crisis is an environmental justice issue, with disadvantaged communities in the U.S. and globally bearing social, economic, and public health burdens across the entire lifecycle of plastics. Today the Environmental Protection Agency is releasing a draft National Strategy on Preventing Plastic Pollution to combat the disparate impacts on communities affected by plastic from production to waste. The White House is also announcing a new Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy. The IPC will coordinate federal efforts on plastic pollution, prioritizing public health, economic development, and equity to ensure that the benefits of acting on plastic pollution – including jobs, minimized exposure to harmful chemicals, and clean communities – are available to all.

Today’s announcements build on more than two years of progress under President Biden’s leadership to advance environmental justice. That progress includes:

For more on the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to advance environmental justice, visit https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/.

Biden Administration, Health Care, Immigration-Migration-Refugees

FACT SHEET: Biden Announces Plan to Expand Health Coverage, Support to DACA Recipients

This fact sheet on President Biden’s plan to expand health coverage and other support to DACA recipients was provided by the White House:

In 2012, President Obama and then Vice President Biden announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to allow young people to live and work in the only country they know as home.  Over the last decade, DACA has brought stability, possibility, and progress to more than 800,000 Dreamers. 
 
President Biden believes that DACA recipients strengthen our economy and enrich our workplaces, our schools and communities, and our country as a whole. That’s why on his first day in office, he called on Congress to give Dreamers a pathway to citizenship and he has repeated that call every State of the Union address since. While Congress has failed to act, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken significant measures to protect Dreamers. This includes, issuing regulations by the Department of Homeland Security to “preserve and fortify” DACA and fighting political opponents in court as they attempt to strip them of the only home they have ever known.
 
The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to providing Dreamers the opportunities and support they need succeed. President Biden is announcing  a plan to expand health coverage for DACA recipients. The Department of Health and Human Services will shortly propose a rule amending the definition of “lawful presence,” for purposes of Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage, to include DACA recipients. We recognize that every day counts, and we expect to get this done by the end of the month. If finalized, the rule will make DACA recipients eligible for these programs for the first time.  Under the proposed rule, DACA recipients will be able to apply for coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace, where they may qualify for financial assistance based on income, and through their state Medicaid agency.  Like all other enrollees, eligibility information will be verified electronically when individuals apply for coverage.
 
President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that health care should be a right, not a privilege. Together, they promised to protect and strengthen the ACA and Medicaid, lowering costs and expanding coverage so that every American has the peace of mind that health insurance brings.  The President’s announcement gives DACA recipients that same opportunity, as the Administration continues to urge Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship to Dreamers, providing them the ultimate peace of mind they need and deserve.  
 
While we wait for Congress to act, and although there are some restrictions on the availability of benefits for DACA recipients, DACA recipients should take note of the numerous Federal programs, opportunities, and resources that have been and continue to be available to them:

Experiential Learning, National Service, and Employment Opportunities:

  • AmeriCorps VISTA Program. DACA recipients are eligible to serve in the AmeriCorps VISTA program, which provides participants with an opportunity to assist local organizations in alleviating poverty. Participants serve in a full-time position for one year and earn related benefits such as a living allowance, professional development and training, and a cash stipend.[1] Find a VISTA service opportunity here.
     
  • Outdoor Programs. DACA recipients have access to a range of outdoor programming, environmental education, and volunteer service programs in their communities and across the country. These include Every Kid Outdoors, the Scout Ranger Program, and the Healthy Parks, Healthy People program as well as the YMCA-National Parks Service partnership, including the Bringing Youth Outdoors Together Summer Camp Program.
     
  • American Job Centers. DACA recipients with work authorization can access many programs within American Job Centers, which help job seekers obtain employment and training to further their careers. American Job Centers provide counseling, skill and ability assessments, and advice on in-demand jobs and potential training opportunities. Locate an American Job Center here.
     
  • Job Corps. DACA recipients with work authorization may qualify for Job Corps, a no-cost education and vocational training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, which helps individuals ages 16-24 improve the quality of their lives by empowering them to secure good jobs and become independent. Job Corps students have access to room and board while they learn skills in specific training areas. Learn more about Job Corps here.
     
  • YouthBuild. DACA recipients with work authorization may qualify for YouthBuild, a pre-apprenticeship program for certain individuals ages 16-24. At YouthBuild’s 275 locations across the country, participants learn vocational skills in construction and other in-demand industries—including health care, information technology, and hospitality—while also earning their high school or equivalent degree, preparing them for opportunities such as college, Registered Apprenticeships, and employment. Information on YouthBuild is here.
     
  • National Farmworker Jobs Program. DACA recipients with work authorization who are engaged in agricultural work may benefit from the National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP), which offers services for migrant and seasonal farmworkers and certain family members within the network of American Job Centers. Career Services and Training grants can help farmworkers gain skills, advance in agricultural jobs, or find employment in new industries. Housing grants assist farmworkers in finding safe and sanitary permanent or temporary housing. Access NFJP resources here.
     
  • ARP Good Jobs Challenge. The Economic Development Administration’s American Rescue Plan: Good Jobs Challenge within the U.S. Department of Commerce is an investment in high-quality, locally led workforce systems to expand career opportunities and good-paying jobs for American workers, including DACA recipients, to achieve economic mobility and security. Awards under the Good Jobs Challenge have been granted to diverse worker-centered training partnerships and systems across the country spanning 31 states and Puerto Rico. The program also focuses on removing systemic barriers to employment through support services such as childcare, transportation, and paid on-the-job training opportunities. Access Good Job Challenge resources here.
     
  • Dept. of Education Resources. The Department of Education has a Resource Guide for schools, colleges, and teachers to support the to support the educational and career success of DACA recipients in secondary and postsecondary education, as well as comprehensive educational resources for DACA students available here.

Assistance with Renting or Purchasing a Home:

  • FHA Financing. DACA recipients are eligible to apply for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured financing for FHA Title II Single Family forward mortgage programs. FHA programs insure private loans made by FHA-approved lenders and FHA-backed loans can help reduce down payments for a home or condominium.
     
  • Housing, Rental, and Credit Counseling Services. DACA recipients can receive free or low-cost advice on buying a home, renting, preventing default, avoiding mortgage default and foreclosure, transitioning from homelessness, budgeting or through HUD-approved housing counseling agencies. Locate a HUD-approved housing counseling agency here or by calling 800-569-4287. Services are available in many languages, including Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, and Mandarin Chinese.

Tax Credits, Financial Education and Consumer Protection:

  • Tax Credits. DACA recipients may be eligible for tax credits, including the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and other child care, and education tax credits. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also provides in-depth tax information for immigrants including an immigrant tax guide, and a residency and tax law overview.
     
  • CFPB Resources. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) provides detailed, targeted consumer tools, financial education resources in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog,  Vietnamese, and plain language publications to assist all individuals, including DACA recipients, in making informed financial decisions. CFPB can help answer hundreds of financial questions including questions on loans, credit, bank accounts, debt collection, and more.
     
  • Consumer Complaints. Consumers, regardless of immigration status, may submit a complaint through CFPB about financial products and services offered by companies, including checking and savings accounts, credit cards, debt collection and settlement, money transfers, virtual currency and more. Most companies respond within 15 days. Complaints can be submitted online or by phone and interpreting services are available by phone in 180 languages.
     
  • CFPB Immigrant Initiative. CFPB recently-launched an engagement and policy initiative aimed at using the Bureau’s tools and authorities to support immigrant families in accessing opportunities to build wealth and contribute to their communities. If you or your family have an experience to share about financial barriers faced by immigrants, please share your story.
  • FTC Consumer Alerts. All individuals can monitor current and past consumer scams through the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Alerts system. Sign up here to receive alerts about the latest scams FTC has identified.

Health and Well-Being:

  • HRSA Health Centers. DACA recipients can access health care through Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) Health Centers, which provide affordable, accessible, quality primary health care to patients regardless of ability to pay, insurance status, or immigration status. HRSA Health Centers are located in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin. Locate a Health Center here.
     
  • Emergency Medicaid. DACA recipients may be eligible for emergency Medicaid. Emergency Medicaid pays for emergency medical treatment for people who meet Medicaid eligibility requirements in their state, but do not meet Medicaid’s citizenship and immigration status requirements. 
     
  • Public Health Programs. DACA recipients can also access public health programs that provide certain immunizations or treatment of communicable diseases.
     
  • Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Support. MotherToBaby, a program funded by HRSA, provides expert, confidential, and no-cost information about the impact of medications, drugs, or other exposures during pregnancy and breastfeeding. DACA recipients and their families can access these services, which are provided in English and Spanish, through the organization’s website, by calling 866-626-6847, or texting 855-999-3525.
     
  • Maternal Mental Health Support. The National Maternal Mental Health Hotline (1-833-943-5746) provides free, confidential, 24/7 emotional support, resources, and counseling referrals to pregnant and postpartum individuals facing mental health challenges, and their loved ones. Support is available over the phone and text in English and Spanish. Interpreter services are available in 60 additional languages and a relay service is available for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
     
  • Special Health Needs. Family-to-Family Health Information Centers (F2F HICs) are located in all 50 States and U.S. territories and provide support, information, resources, and training for families of children and youth with special health care needs, including on specific health issues, family-centered care, and shared decision making (SDM). Find an F2F center in your area here.
     
  • Nutrition Assistance. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding individuals, as well as infants and children under 5, with food, nutrition and breastfeeding education, and referrals to health and social services. Eligibility is determined by categorical, residential, income, and nutrition risk requirements. Learn how to apply for WIC here or by calling a state, toll-free number found here.

Military Veterans and Active-Duty Servicemember Resources:

  • Veterans Benefits.  The Department of Veterans Affairs provides benefits and other assistance to all eligible Veterans regardless of their immigration status. More information for Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors is available here or can be accessed by calling 1-800-MyVA411 (1800-698-2411) which is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
  • Free Legal Assistance. All active-duty military personnel and their dependents, as well as certain Reserve and National Guard Soldiers and retirees, are eligible for free legal assistance, including immigration and naturalization legal services. More information on Air Force Legal Assistance is available here, Army Legal Assistance here, Navy and Marine Legal Services here, and Coast Guard Legal Services here.
Biden Administration, Civil Rights, Democracy, Human Rights

The Status of Women is the Status of Democracy: Advancing Women’s Political and Civic Participation and Leadership at the Second Summit for Democracy

“Democracy not theocracy – protests in the United States over attacks on reproductive freedom, turning women and girls into second-class citizens without the same right to bodily autonomy or self-determination. Vice President Kamala Harris has said “the status of women is the status of democracy.” The ability of women and girls to participate safely, freely, and equally in political life and in society is a defining feature of democracy, but this hard-won progress is increasingly fragile. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

As Vice President Kamala Harris has said, “the status of women is the status of democracy.” The ability of women and girls to participate safely, freely, and equally in political life and in society is a defining feature of democracy, but this hard-won progress is increasingly fragile. Wherever women and girls are under threat, so, too, is democracy, peace, and stability—from Iran, where women are courageously demanding respect for their human rights and fundamental freedoms in the face of oppression; to Ukraine, where we are once more seeing rape used as a weapon in Russia’s brutal and unjust war; to Afghanistan, where the Taliban bars women and girls from attending school and fully participating in society.

As we face unprecedented global challenges, we must harness the full potential, participation, and leadership of women and girls. In hosting the second Summit for Democracy, the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to advancing women’s political and civic participation and leadership and ensuring that they are at every table where decisions are being made. Research shows that the status of women and the stability of nations are inextricably linked, and that societies that foster gender discrimination and allow oppressive gender norms to flourish are more likely to be unstable. 

At the second Summit for Democracy, the Biden-Harris Administration highlighted key actions and progress made during the intervening Year of Action.

Accelerating Women’s and Girls’ Civic and Political Leadership under the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal. At the first Summit, President Biden established the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal, a landmark set of policy and foreign assistance initiatives that increase the Administration’s ongoing work to bolster democracy and defend human rights globally. Today, we are building on those efforts by:

  • Expanding the Advancing Women’s and Girls’ Civic and Political Leadership Initiative, including in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Announced at the first Summit for Democracy, this USAID-led initiative works to dismantle barriers to the political empowerment of women and girls by building the pipeline of women leaders and facilitating their safe and meaningful participation in political, peacebuilding and transition processes. This initiative will expand efforts to prevent and mitigate violence against women in politics and public life. USAID is providing more than $15 million to this initiative and is beginning program implementation in eight focus countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Tanzania, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Kyrgyz Republic, and Yemen.
  • Establishing the Network for Gender Inclusive Democracy: USAID is launching a Network for Gender Inclusive Democracy (Network) to provide strategic direction and a platform for bilateral donors, intergovernmental institutions, civil society and academic partners to align their multilateral and country-level efforts in support of women’s political and civic participation and leadership.  The Network will facilitate coordination, knowledge-sharing, and policy advocacy and carry forward the work of the Cohort on Gender Equality as a Prerequisite for Democracy, including the policy recommendations and roadmap developed during the Year of Action.
     
  • Investing in SHE PERSISTS (Supporting Her Empowerment: Political Engagement, Rights, Safety, and Inclusion Strategies to Succeed). The State Department will invest $2 million over this year in support of SHE PERSISTS, an initiative announced at the first Summit for Democracy that bolsters women’s political participation and empowerment to build and sustain good governance and lasting democracy globally.  This multi-year program provides funding for technical assistance to advance women’s safety, political participation and empowerment, and initiatives for inclusive democracy, with a focus on diverse groups and marginalized populations.

Advancing Women’s Involvement in Peace and Security Efforts. Women’s participation in peace and security processes—as peacekeepers, leaders, and members of the defense and security sector—is essential to global security, stability and democracy. To advance women’s meaningful participation, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken the following actions:

  • Investing in SHE WINS (Support Her Empowerment: Women’s Inclusion for New Security): The Department of State is investing an additional $1.7 million, working with Congress and subject to the availability of funds, for the SHE WINS initiative, a nearly $10 million program that advances the leadership of local women and women-led civil society organizations to address peace and security challenges in their communities. Since the first Summit for Democracy, SHE WINS has initiated projects in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Papua New Guinea, Uzbekistan, and Yemen. To provide agile, easy-to-access funds that directly support women-led groups facing emerging crises and challenges related to Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), the State Department launched the SHE WINS Rapid Response Fund in November 2022.
     
  • Co-Chairing the Women, Peace, and Security Focal Points Network. The United States, in partnership with the government of Romania, is the 2023 Co-Chair of the UN Women-led Women, Peace, and Security Focal Points Network (WPS-FPN), a cross-regional forum coordinated by UN Women to share best practices and experiences to advance WPS globally.  As co-chair, the U.S. will host the WPS-FPN Capital Level Meeting in June 2023, bringing together representatives and leaders from over 95 different countries and organizations, including members of Congress and the Administration. 
     
  • Reducing Gaps for Women’s Participation in Security Forces: In consultation with the Department of State, the Department of Defense is establishing a pilot program to conduct an assessment of opportunities for women’s involvement in the security forces of select partner nations.  Through this multi-year program, the Department of Defense intends to standardize the way it assesses barriers to women’s participation in partner nation security forces, in order to inform future security cooperation activities.

The Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse (Global Partnership). A commitment from the first Summit for Democracy and launched at the 66th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the Global Partnership, which currently has 12 participating governments, brings together international organizations, civil society, and the private sector to prioritize, understand, prevent, and address the growing scourge of technology-facilitated gender-based violence,  which disproportionately impacts women and LGBTQI+ political and public figures, leaders, journalists and activists.

Today, alongside the release of the Global Partnership’s 2023 Roadmap, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing key actions and investments to prevent and respond to technology-facilitated gender-based violence and counter its chilling effects on women leaders and democratic participation, including more than $13 million in targeted funding across USAID and the Department of State. Key actions include:

  • Combatting technology-facilitated violence targeting women in politics and public life, including gendered disinformation.
    • Transform Digital Spaces Initiative (Transform). USAID is launching Transform, with planned investments of up to $6 million over three years, to prevent and address technology-facilitated gender-based violence, especially violence perpetrated against women in politics and public life. Transform’s pilot projects across three countries will integrate expertise from women-led civil society organizations working to address gender-based violence, women’s political and civic participation, and digital democracy.  Transform will synthesize and share practical, comparative knowledge drawn from these pilots to inform global efforts to address this problem. 
       
    • Promoting Information Integrity and Resilience Initiative (ProInfo). This week, USAID will announce the Promoting Information and Resilience Integrity (Pro-Info) Initiative, which will build on the work of the Summit for Democracy Information Integrity Cohort, and expand efforts by USAID and the U.S. Department of State to strengthen information integrity and resilience globally, with efforts to address the disproportionate targeting of women and LGBTQI+ leaders, activists, and public figures.
       
    • Capacity-building to prevent and address technology-facilitated gender-based violence globally, including access to services for survivors. Working with Congress and subject to the availability of funds, the Department of State will continue to invest over $7 million in programs focused on documenting, mitigating, preventing and responding to technology-facilitated gender-based violence and integrating solutions that address online harassment and abuse, including support for women in public-facing roles in politics and the media, through: small grants for awareness, prevention and digital safety workshops; access to legal and psychosocial services for survivors; and programs to encourage collaboration between civil society organizations focused on gender-based violence and digital rights, to support coalitions to promote institutional change.
       
  • Expanding data and research on technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
    • Deepening the evidence base on gendered disinformation. Today, the State Department Global Engagement Center (GEC) is releasing a public Executive Summary of a joint research report on gendered disinformation. Conducted with Canada, the European External Action Service, Germany, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom, the groundbreaking global study finds that state and non-state actors use gendered disinformation to silence women, discourage online political discourse, and shape perceptions toward gender and the role of women in democracies, and underscore the need for more research to tackle this scourge.
       
    • Measuring technology-facilitated gender-based violence through Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). In 2023, USAID will pilot questions within the DHS Domestic Violence Module in two countries with high internet penetration rates to measure technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
       
  • Advancing U.S. policies to prevent and respond to technology-facilitated gender-based violence. Countries represented on the Global Partnership—including the United States—make a commitment to advance activities within their own countries to prioritize and address gender-based online harassment and abuse.  In support of that commitment, the Administration has taken the following key actions:
    • Building a blueprint for action to prevent and address technology-facilitated gender-based violence. To tackle this scourge in the U.S, President Biden established a Task Force with a mandate to identify concrete actions in a Blueprint to prevent online harassment and abuse, provide support for survivors, increase accountability, and expand research. Last month, the White House published an Executive Summary of the initial Task Force blueprint, which includes a broad range of new and expanded commitments from Federal agencies to address technology-facilitated gender-based violence across four lines of effort: Prevention, Survivor Support, Accountability, and Research. 
       
    • Integrating a gender lens in the National Cybersecurity Strategy. Earlier this month, the Administration released the National Cybersecurity Strategy, which integrates a gender lens across key priorities to secure cyberspace and our digital ecosystem, including the imperative of increasing the participation of women and LGBTQI+ persons in the cybersecurity workforce; recognizing how technologies are misused to proliferate online harassment, exploitation, and abuse; and prioritizing partnerships, such as the Global Partnership, and the Freedom Online Coalition, to advance common cybersecurity interests.
       

Prioritizing technology-facilitated gender-based violence in the U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to GBV Globally. In December 2022, the Administration released an updated U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally, which bolsters U.S. commitments to prevent and address this global scourge, including a specific objective to prevent and respond to technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

Biden Administration, Democracy

FACT SHEET: Biden Administration’s Abiding Commitment to Democratic Renewal at Home and Abroad

Voting, Long Island, NY. The Biden Administration reviewed actions it has taken over the past two years to bolster democratic governance at home and abroad, which President Biden has called “the defining challenge of our time.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The White House provided this fact sheet reviewing efforts by the Biden Administration to bolster democratic governance at home and abroad, which President Biden has called “the defining challenge of our time.”

President Biden has called the struggle to bolster democratic governance at home and abroad the defining challenge of our time. That is because democracy—transparent and accountable government of, for, and by the people—remains the best way to realize lasting peace, prosperity, and human dignity.
 
Internationally, the United States continues to strengthen democratic resilience and respect for human rights through both new and existing initiatives.  In Fiscal Years 2022, 2023, and 2024, the United States has invested and aims to provide approximately $9.5 billion, working with Congress and subject to the availability of appropriations, to support democracy, human rights, and good governance globally.
 
At the first Summit for Democracy held in December 2021, President Biden launched the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal, an expansion of U.S. Government efforts to defend and grow democratic resilience with like-minded partners through diplomacy and foreign assistance. These efforts center on five areas of work crucial to the functioning of transparent, accountable governance:  advancing technology for democracy, supporting free and independent media, fighting corruption, bolstering human rights and democratic reformers, and defending free and fair elections.
 
On March 29, the United States is announced up to $690 million in new funding for the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal through Fiscal Year 2024, working with Congress and subject to the availability of appropriations. As part of the Presidential Initiative, the U.S. Government is also announcing a groundbreaking new suite of policy initiatives intended to advance technology that works for, and not against, democratic societies.   
  
At home, the Biden-Harris Administration has produced historic progress for the American people, proving that democracy delivers a stronger, fairer society that leaves no one behind. Under President Biden’s leadership, the economy has added more than 12 million jobs. The unemployment rate has fallen to 3.6 percent.. The Biden-Harris Administration has taken action to give families more breathing room, including cutting prescription drug costs, health insurance premiums, and energy bills, while driving the uninsured rate to historic lows. It has invested in rebuilding America’s infrastructure, delivering safe roads, clean water, and high-speed Internet to communities across the country. And it is taking the most aggressive action ever to tackle the climate crisis, investing in American innovation and industries that will define the future, and fueling a manufacturing boom that is creating good jobs for workers in parts of the country that have long been left behind.  At the same time, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to restore and strengthen the United States’ democratic institutions, including by protecting the right to vote and the civil rights of all Americans.
 
Advancing Technology for Democracy at Home and Abroad

  • The U.S. Government is committed to advancing a positive vision for the Internet and the digital ecosystem; countering the misuse of technology and stemming the tide of digital authoritarianism; and shaping emerging technologies to ensure respect for human rights and democratic principles. At the Summit, the Administration will announce an ambitious slate of new efforts to ensure that technology strengthens democracy.

Promoting Democratic Renewal Abroad

  • Supporting Free and Independent Media. To help mitigate the existential threat to the survival of independent media, USAID via its Media Viability Accelerator is partnering with Microsoft and Internews to create a new, web-based data platform that will enable media outlets to better understand the markets, audiences, and strategies that will maximize their odds of profitability. Additionally, USAID will provide up to $16 million for the Promoting Information Integrity and Resilience Initiative (ProInfo), which will strengthen information integrity globally by advancing international cooperation and private-public-civic partnerships. 
     
  • Fighting Corruption. In complement to the ongoing work at the U.S. Department of the Treasury to unmask shell companies by requiring them to report information about their beneficial owners, today the U.S. government and over two dozen foreign partners announced the Summit for Democracy Commitment on Beneficial Ownership and Misuse of Legal Persons. The Beneficial Ownership Commitment pledges endorsees to enhancing beneficial ownership transparency so as to make it more difficult for corrupt actors to conceal their identities, assets, and criminal activities through the misuse of opaque corporate structures and legal persons.
     
  • Bolstering Human Rights and Democratic Reformers.
     
    • Through the Partnerships for Democratic Development and the Democracy Delivers Initiative, USAID is surging support to countries experiencing democratic breakthroughs by helping reformist leaders show that democracy is delivering concrete benefits to their people. Since the first Summit for Democracy, the Development Finance Corporation has committed more than $1 billion to help consolidate democratic progress in eight countries on which USAID is focusing the latter effort.
       
    • USAID is creating a first-ever Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance to expand and modernize its support for democracy around the world, implement much of the Presidential Initiative, and further infuse democracy, human rights, and good governance considerations across the Agency’s foreign policy and development work.
       
    • In coordination with the Department of State, the Department of Defense is piloting a program to reduce gaps for women’s participation in partner nation defense and security forces by better incorporating this imperative into security cooperation with its partners.
       
  • Defending Free and Fair Elections.  Following a commitment made at the first Summit for Democracy, USAID has convened the world’s leading election assistance organizations in the Global Network for Securing Election Integrity, to align on standards and practices for supporting clean elections.  It is also issuing a Guide to USAID Electoral Assistance for the 21st Century to highlight the tenets of transparent, politically neutral, technically rigorous electoral assistance, in contrast to the covert and partisan electoral interference of malign foreign actors.   

Advancing Democratic Renewal at Home

  • Protecting the Right to Vote in Free, Fair, and Secure Elections.
    • President Biden has repeatedly and forcefully called on Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act to eliminate discrimination in voting and ensure access to the ballot box for all eligible voters. Until that critical legislation is secured, the Biden-Harris Administration will use every tool at its disposal to protect the right to vote. The Department of Justice has doubled the number of staff dedicated to enforcing voting rights laws, and the President’s FY 2024 Budget provides an increase of $62 million to further strengthen the Department’s Civil Rights Division. The Budget also includes $5 billion to help state and local jurisdictions strengthen our election infrastructure by supporting sustained investment in election equipment, systems, and personnel. Agencies continue to implement the President’s Executive Order directing an all-of-government effort to promote access to voting.
       
    • In January 2023, President Biden signed into law the Electoral Count Reform Act, which establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes for President and Vice President. This Act aims to preserve the will of the people and to protect against attempts to overturn our elections, like the attempt that led to the January 6 insurrection.
       
    • The Federal Election Commission took a major step to increase transparency in digital campaigning by finalizing a rule expanding the political advertising disclaimer requirements. These requirements previously applied mainly to traditional print and broadcast; this rule explicitly addresses ads placed for a fee on another person’s website, digital device, application, or advertising platform. Effective March 1, digital political ads must now disclose the entity paying for them.
       
  • Advancing Equity and Racial Justice and Protecting the Rights of All Americans.
    • Through the implementation of landmark legislation and historic executive action, the Biden-Harris Administration is working to make real the promise of America for everyone—including rural communities, communities of color, Tribal communities, LGBTQI+ individuals, people with disabilities, women and girls, and communities impacted by persistent poverty. To strengthen the federal government’s equity mandate, in February, President Biden signed a second Executive Order further advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government. This Executive Order launches a new annual, government-wide process to address the barriers underserved communities face in benefitting from Federal policies, programs, and activities. It also requires agencies to improve their community engagement and seek more input from communities about the policies that impact them. Consistent with this charge, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is developing new tools and guidance to broaden public engagement in the regulatory process.
       
    • In a healthy democracy, the criminal justice system must protect the public and ensure fair and impartial justice for all. To advance these mutually reinforcing goals, President Biden urges Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to advance accountability, transparency, and public trust in law enforcement. In May 2022, the President issued an Executive Order on effective and accountable policing and criminal justice practices that, among other things, requires federal law enforcement agencies to ban chokeholds; restrict no-knock warrants; mandate the use of body-worn cameras; provide de-escalation training; submit officer misconduct records into a new national database; and restrict the transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies. The President’s Executive Order also established a new interagency Alternatives and Reentry Committee to safely reduce unnecessary criminal justice system interactions, improve rehabilitation, and support formerly incarcerated individuals’ successful reentry into society while addressing existing disparities in our Nation’s criminal justice systems.
       
    • In September, President Biden held the United We Stand Summit, the first-ever White House Summit to address the hate-fueled violence that threatens our public safety and democracy. At the Summit, the White House announced an historic package of new actions the federal government and all sectors of society will take to foster national unity and counter hate and toxic polarization. The President also established an interagency group to increase and better coordinate U.S. Government efforts to counter antisemitism, Islamophobia, and related forms of bias and discrimination within the United States—the group’s first order of business is to develop a national strategy to counter antisemitism. The President has also taken historic action to reduce gun violence, including by signing into law the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years and taking more executive action to reduce gun violence that any other president at this point in the presidency.
       
    • President Biden has taken historic actions to advance full equality for LGBTQI+ Americans. The President championed and signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act, safeguarding marriage equality for LGBTQI+ and interracial couples. The President has expanded rights and protections for transgender Americans. He has also worked to advance opportunity and dignity for LGBTQI+ children and families by: taking on the discredited practice of so-called “conversion therapy;” strengthening resources and protecting for LGBTQI+ children in America’s public schools; and improving the federal government’s collection of data related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
       
    • Ensuring all people—regardless of their gender—are able to participate fully and equally in civic and political life is a foundational tenet of stable democracies. The Biden-Harris Administration is implementing the National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality, including making progress towards ensuring all people can live free from violence by signing into law the strengthened and reauthorized Violence Against Women Act and historic military justice reform. The President has also advanced protections and equity in the workplace, including through Executive Orders to advance pay equity for federal employees and employees of federal contractors, and by signing into law important protections for pregnant and nursing workers. The President has issued two Executive Orders and a Presidential Memorandum to protect access to reproductive health care services, including abortion, in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, and to defend a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.
       
    • President Biden has prioritized relationships with Tribal Nations that are built on respect for Tribal sovereignty and self-governance, honoring federal trust and treaty responsibilities, protecting Tribal homelands, and conducting regular, meaningful, and robust consultation. The President’s economic agenda includes historic levels of funding specifically for Tribal communities and Native people, including $32 billion in the American Rescue Plan (ARP), $13 billion in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), and $700 million in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
       
  • Bolstering Democratic Institutions, Promoting Civic Participation, and Improving Public Engagement with Government.
    • The Administration is leveraging the power of national service and volunteerism to bring together Americans from different backgrounds to serve their communities and country in common purpose. The President’s FY 2024 Budget includes a $166 million increase for AmeriCorps to raise the living allowance it provides its members to make national service more accessible.
       
    • President Biden believes that all Americans should have the opportunity to learn about our democratic process and our nation’s rich history—including both our triumphs and the times we have failed to live up to our founding ideals. The 2023 omnibus appropriations package tripled federal investment in civics education, and President Biden is building on this progress by including an additional $50 million to help students understand the U.S. Constitution and how our system of Government works and build the skills—including media and digital literacy skills—required to fully participate in civic life.
       
    • A free and independent press is critical to our democracy. In October 2022, Attorney General Garland announced significant revisions to the Justice Department’s regulations regarding obtaining information from, or records of, members of the news media. Under the new rules, only in extremely narrow circumstances will DOJ use compulsory legal process—like subpoenas and search warrants—when investigating media acting within the scope of newsgathering. The President’s FY 2024 Budget committed to working with the Congress to support independent local journalism to better inform Americans about the matters that impact their lives and hold the powerful accountable.
       
    • Strong and independent unions are an essential bulwark of democracies: They build solidarity across race, gender and other lines of difference to advance their members’ shared interests, elect leadership from their own ranks to give workers a voice, and serve as counter-weights to the economic and political power of Wall Street and large corporations. Earlier this month, the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment released an update detailing agencies’ progress towards implementing more than 70 action items to support worker organizing and collective bargaining.
       

In December 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration released the U.S. Government’s Fifth Open Government National Action Plan to advance a more inclusive, responsive, and accountable government. The plan includes commitments to increase the public’s access to data to better advance equity, engage the public in the regulatory process, make government records more accessible to the public, counter corruption, and improve the delivery of government services and benefits.

Biden Administration, Climate Action, Climate Change, Foreign Policy, Foreign Relations

FACT SHEET: $7 Billion in Private Sector and US Government Commitments to Promote Climate Resilience, Adaptation, and Mitigation across Africa

From the White House:

In Lusaka, Zambia, in response to Vice President Kamala Harris’s call for the private sector to promote and enhance climate resilience, adaptation and migration across Africa, the private sector made over $7 billion in new commitments. Additionally, the U.S. Government is announcing new federal funding and initiatives to expand access to climate information services and enhance climate resilience and adaptation. These new investments and initiatives will generate significant economic benefits while addressing African nations’ pressing needs resulting from the climate crisis, including food security challenges, by helping to lift-up over 116 million farmers and promote climate-smart agriculture. These announcements demonstrate America’s commitment to partnering with African people and governments, alongside the private sector, to help the continent meet its climate adaptation and resilience, clean-energy access, and just energy transition goals.
 
African nations have historically contributed relatively little to the climate crisis but are disproportionally harmed by its impacts. The Biden-Harris Administration recognizes that to address the climate crisis in Africa, we must work together, building new coalitions between the U.S. government, African governments, civil society, and the private sector.
 
Private Sector Investments
 
The Vice President, as part of her call for the private sector to promote climate resilience, adaptation, and mitigation across Africa, is announcing the following 27 private sector and philanthropic commitments to support farmers, climate-smart agriculture, sustainability, clean energy, and clean transportation.
 
Supporting Farmers and Climate-Smart Agriculture
 

  • Pula, an agricultural insurance and technology company, is responding to the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) Call to Action and has committed to increase their coverage to 100 million small holder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa by providing up to $20 billion in insurance coverage by 2026. The smallholder farmers pay $20 for $200 dollars of insurance coverage. Insuring previously uninsured farmers can generate a direct positive impact for farming households across Africa, helping to secure their livelihoods by protecting them against the risk of financial losses due to climate-related events.
     
  • Mastercard, a payment and technology company, is responding to the PREPARE Call to Action and has committed to increase access of its Community Pass platform to a total of 15 million farmers in Africa by 2027 to spur economic output and opportunity. Community Pass is a shared interoperable digital platform that provides a commercially sustainable approach to scaling service delivery and increasing access to critical services including healthcare, agriculture, and micro-commerce, for individuals in underserved, remote, and frequently offline communities. Community Pass enables farmers to command higher prices by facilitating increased access to buyers and creating greater price transparency. Community Pass also enables access to inputs, advisory, and other financial service providers. Together, these services improve a smallholder farmer’s agricultural practices, resulting in a more resilient, sustainable, and productive farming system.
     
  • SunCulture, an Africa-focused solar irrigation company, commits to mobilizing $100 million in private capital and $40 million in grant/subsidy funding to deploy smallholder farmer solar irrigation to address food security in Kenya by 2028. SunCulture expects to install 274,000 solar irrigation systems on smallholder farms, reaching nearly 1.1 million direct beneficiaries, creating 411,000 jobs, growing 7.1 million metric tons of food, and generating $5 billion of increased incomes for smallholder farmers.
     
  • One Acre Fund, an agricultural service provider to support African smallholder farmers in partnership with local governments, has committed to raise and invest a $100 million fund to help 1 million farmers plant one billion trees by 2030. Smallholder farmers plant trees to harvest branches and wood, improve the farm environment, and sequester carbon.
     
  • Touton SA, an agro-industrial actor, is leading a consortium expected to commit $79.2 million into sourcing sustainable cocoa by 2025 and benefit an estimated 150,000 Ghanaians. They are supported by Palladium through the Partnership for Forests (P4F) project, and will develop and pilot a landscape-wide governance model in Juaboso-Bia landscape to promote sustainable and deforestation-free cocoa production while protecting forests earmarked as a hotspot intervention area. 
  • AlphaTalentsAfrica (ATA), an investment company supporting agribusiness ecosystems in Africa, has committed $50 million in agrifood industry investments in Africa over the next 20 years. ATA has committed $9 million for its first investment from the $50 million in a manufacturer of quinine-based ingredients for the beverage industry and of medicinal plant-based pharmaceutical products headquartered in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 
  • AgDevCo, a specialist investor in African agribusiness, is investing $10 million in sustainable forestry through New Forests Company. New Forests Company is one of the leading forestry companies in East Africa, with more than 30,000 hectares of plantations in Uganda and Tanzania. The company also supports over 6,000 smallholder farmers through the company’s outgrower program. All timber is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified, and the plantations sequester significant volumes of carbon, which will increase further as the company and outgrower forestry stands mature. 
  • Switch Bioworks, a living fertilizer company, has committed $10 million to create sustainable biofertilizers in Africa over the next three years. Successful biofertilizer has the potential to triple per-acre productivity at less than one-tenth the greenhouse gas emissions of synthetic fertilizer.
     
  • Agrinfo Company Limited, an aerial imagery and artificial intelligence company that helps farmers make informed crop decisions, has committed $2 million to create a network of 3,000 drone pilots to collect and analyze data that will help 1 million farmers in Africa by 2030.
     
  • Corteva, an agriscience company dedicated to agriculture, has committed $250,000 to support climate smart post-harvest solutions in Ethiopia for 230,000 smallholder farmers and recently committed $100,000 for research that is applying gene-editing techniques to create a parasite-resistant “smart” sorghum by 2025. These collaborations will increase the incomes and food security of smallholder farmers in Africa as the threats of climate change, pest, and disease continue to grow. 
  • Land O’ Lakes Venture 37, the non-profit international development affiliate of the member-owned agricultural cooperative, is working through the Dairy Nourishes Africa portfolio of projects, founded by the Chicago-based Global Dairy Platform and in partnership with the Boston-based Bain & Company. This unique 15-to-20-year public/private partnership will drive inclusive climate-smart economic development in the dairy sector of four East African countries, reaching more than 10 million resource-poor, opportunity-constrained stakeholders. The projects aim to feed 40,000 children daily and double the income of 250,000 commercial-oriented farmers in the next 10 years. 
  • McCormick, a global flavor company headquartered in the U.S., is responding to the PREPARE Call to Action, and through its Grown for Good framework, is investing in the resilience of over 30,000 farmers across their supply chains. They have set an ambitious 100% sustainable sourcing goal for their top five branded ingredients for 2025 and have already achieved 100% sustainability for their vanilla supply chain sourced from Madagascar.

 
Spurring Sustainability, Clean Energy, and Clean Transportation

  • African Parks, a non-profit conservation organization that rehabilitates and manages national parks in partnership with governments and local communities across Africa, has committed to increase its management of 8 new parks by 2030, taking their number to 30. To meet this 30 Parks by 2030 goal, African Parks is committing to raise and invest an additional $1.25 billion in Africa over the next 7 years. This will include a mix of already raised funds in addition to future fundraising.
     
  • Cambridge Industries Ltd (CIL), an engineering, design, procurement, and construction firm focused on renewable energy projects throughout Africa, has committed $950 million to decarbonizing waste management in Kinshasa, anchored by four Waste-to-Value Industrial Parks for the Circular Economy. The universal waste management project, which will utilize anaerobic digesters for waste-to-energy and high-quality recycling scheme is expected to provide waste collection and disposal services to over 3.5 million households, electricity to 400,000 households, and create employment opportunities for more than 35,000 residents by 2030. 
  • ABD Group, a project development firm focused on Africa, commits to finance and operationalize an electrification project with Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) by expanding two combined cycle gas power projects to produce 900 MW of electricity through new power plants to expand energy access in a project valued at $800 million dollars. ABD Group has also developed and secured financing to build five wastewater treatment plants in Cote d’Ivoire valued at $52 million. Construction will start in the second quarter of 2023 on five wastewater treatment plants and a pumping station. This will bring wastewater treatment to social housing communities and benefit a projected 40,000 households. 
  • Combustion Associates Inc (CAI), a power plant equipment supplier company specializing in gas turbine power generation packages, has committed to $600 million to reduce vented greenhouse gas emissions through their Flare Gas Elimination Program in Nigeria by 2025. 
  • SAGLEV Inc, a vehicle assembly, manufacturing, and distributing company, is committing $600 million in electric vehicle assembly plants for Ghana – with service to Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria, and South Africa by 2027. This will create 150 direct jobs and up to 25,000 indirect jobs by 2027. 
  • The Emissions Capture Company (ECCO), an emissions management platform utilizing AI-driven solutions that recycle industrial emission and waste into valuable compounds to support the green economy, commits at least $550 million to reduce emissions and plastic waste from Nestlé sites in Africa between 2023 and 2029 by deploying its proprietary technology that gathers emissions and plastic waste from industrial processes and converts it into sodium bicarbonate and other materials. 
  • The Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development finance institution, will invest and mobilize $510 million for the initial $750 million first close of a $2 billion Infrastructure Climate Resilience Fund (ICRF) with a mission to incorporate climate risk in physical infrastructure built across the continent. The ICRF was launched last year and is focused on the following four sectors: Transport and Logistics, Power and Renewables, Telecoms and Digital Infrastructure, Industrial Parks and Special Economic Zones. It is the first large-scale adaptation program of its kind, and it offers a unique opportunity to support sustainable development in Africa while mitigating the impacts of climate change through a blended finance approach to de-risk investment opportunities. 
  • CrossBoundary Energy, an investment firm, has committed $500 million to support clean energy solutions for African businesses over the next two years. According to World Bank data, access to reliable and affordable electricity is the most significant constraint on economic growth on the continent. CBE addresses this challenge by providing African corporations with fully financed renewable power. CBE expects to employ over 6,000 people and save African businesses between $6.5 and13 million annually in electricity costs. 
  • Wilderness, an ecotourism pioneer, and carbon offset developer Carbon Ark, have signed a partnership with the Zambian government that aims to protect millions of acres of threatened forest and “rewild” previously pristine areas of biodiversity damaged by human activity. The partnership seeks to empower local communities and expand the habitat for endangered wildlife through the implementation of a high-integrity carbon sequestration project. Carbon Ark anticipates that this partnership project will deploy over $500 million in operational investments and create over 1,000 community jobs. The partnership is also supported by U.S. impact investing firm TPG Rise, Bank of America and Jet Blue Ventures through Rubicon Carbon.
     
  • C1 Ventures, a climate technology investment fund focused on decarbonizing large-scale industries by applying breakthrough technologies, has partnered with other investors to commit $250 million in biomanufacturing in Africa over the next four years. The stealth company, backed by C1 Ventures, will employ a gas-based precision fermentation technique to create animal feed protein and biodegradable plastics using captured CO2 and CH4 gases from concentrated natural and industrial sources.
     
  • Coalition for Climate Entrepreneurship (CCE), which includes the Gaia Africa Climate Fund, MassChallenge, Village Capital, SVG’s Thrive Africa, and additional partners, commits over $200 million to identify and support emerging sustainability entrepreneurs in Africa, including by helping scale their innovations to global markets.
     
  • Roam, an electric vehicle company from Kenya, is aiming to raise and invest over the next eight years $150 million to scale up affordable electric motorcycles and public transit solutions that have been uniquely designed to offer a clean transport solution for emerging market consumers and result in economic benefits for micro-entrepreneurs and commuters. Roam’s plan will reduce CO2 emissions while creating 300 direct jobs and more than 24,000 indirect jobs by 2026 with a gender inclusive recruitment strategy.
     
  • Vista Bank Group, a financial service holding company with the objective to build a world-class pan-African financial institution, commits $100 million to be invested toward sustainability initiatives over the next year, such as renewable energy projects and reforestation programs on the African continent. This commitment will help ensure that investments support a resilient economy and deliver financial returns while generating positive value for society and operating within environmental constraints. 
  • World Economic Forum (WEF), an independent international non-government organization, is publicly announcing $18.2 million of recently committed dollars from its Global Plastic Action Partnership (a consortium of public and private sector partners) towards plastic pollution reduction in Ghana through the Ghana National Plastic Action Partnership (their national platform for multistakeholder collaboration). This commitment will support Ghana in transitioning to a circular plastics economy. 
  • Transvolt Energy Systems Limited, a clean energy storage company, is committed to raising $10 million to establish a lithium battery assembly plant in Africa by 2024. This manufacturing facility will increase access to clean energy, reduce the cost of local clean energy installations, generate secondary markets based on refurbished batteries, and create 1,200 direct and indirect job opportunities.

U.S. Government Commitments
 
To further accelerate the implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), which aims to help more than half a billion people in developing countries adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change this decade, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing the following initiatives in recognition of the critical urgency of building climate resilience across the African continent. These announcements build on the bilateral climate adaptation, resilience, and mitigation announcements the Vice President made in Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia.
 
Expanding Access to Climate Information Services
 

  • The GEOGlows Streamflow Forecasting Service. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) is committed to continuing its leadership role as part of the Group on Earth Observations Global Water Sustainability Initiative (GEOGloWS), which provides reliable 15-day forecasts and 50 years of historical streamflow data for every river in the world through a free and open web service. Over the next five years, the United States, including NOAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), together with other partners will commit $1.5 million to enhance GEOGloWS service implementation in Tanzania, Botswana and Kenya, building on earlier success in Malawi. GEOGloWS will work directly with partner countries on implementation, including capacity development workshops with user organizations. Through its support for the GEOGloWS European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Streamflow Forecasting Service, NOAA contributes to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Executive Action Plan to deliver Early Warning for All by 2027. 
  • Expanding Weather Station Networks in Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) will commit nearly $10 million in weather stations and capacity building to use and maintain them over the next five years with 10 African governments, beginning with Kenya. These partnerships will support governments to develop or fortify the capability to report weather station data and integrate this information with Earth observations to improve climate, weather, and acute food insecurity forecasts. USAID’s investment in these services will also benefit other sectors such as health; agriculture; water, sanitation and hygiene; and climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction; thereby helping to save lives and livelihoods. This expansion of FEWS NET will help the region and the international community to monitor our rapidly changing climate and support early warning systems for climate hazards and acute food insecurity. 
  • YouthMappers. A Global Mapping Response for African Development.  With support from the USAID’s GeoCenter, young people in 70 countries from more than 350 universities are applying geospatial technology to assist with humanitarian outcomes and to help solve international development challenges related to poverty, disease, and climate change. Through its YouthMappers program, USAID will invest $600,000 to empower more than 5,000 university students around the world to map communities in African countries using earth observations and satellite data. The new data will be used to address health, food security, energy security, disaster response, and resilience in local communities.  
  • FEWS NET Health Threat Extension. Through the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Health Threat Extension (HTE) pilot activity, overseas USAID Missions in Somalia and Mozambique will explore and address climate-sensitive health threats that generate cross-sectoral impacts. Each Mission will take an interdisciplinary approach to incorporating local health, climate, earth system, and social science data and information. These projects will leverage and enhance existing data systems to advance evidence-based health threat early warning systems. The projects will support evidence-based decision-making, prevention, and planning surrounding forecast health threats and their relationship to food and water insecurity and other development challenges.

 
Enhancing Climate Resilience and Adaptation

  • Energy Access and Climate Resilience. The U.S. Africa Development Fund (USADF) has committed up to $1.5 million in grant funding in FY23 for new and expanded USADF Off-grid Energy Challenges. The areas in which the Challenges will focus include healthcare facilities electrification, energy for agriculture, women in energy, productive use of energy, and innovative energy solutions that will support African governments goals of increasing energy access and improve the standard of living in unserved and underserved communities in Africa. This program will support energy for agriculture, women in energy, and healthcare facilities electrification. 
  • U.S.-Africa Climate Innovation Week. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will advance the development of climate resilience and adaptation projects in Africa by hosting a U.S.-Africa Climate Innovation Week in the United States for leaders from across the continent. This partnership-building engagement will include parallel reverse trade missions to multiple U.S. cities, to showcase innovative American technologies, services and best practices that can benefit Africa’s infrastructure for water management, and early warning and emergency management systems.
Biden Administration, Foreign Policy, Foreign Relations

FACT SHEET: Biden Submits to Congress 10-Year Plans to Implement US Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability

From the White House:

The U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability is a long-term initiative to redefine how the United States prevents violence and advances stability in areas vulnerable to conflict.  Under the bipartisan Global Fragility Act, the U.S. government is implementing this Strategy through 10-year plans developed with extensive consultations with local stakeholders in our priority partner countries and region: Haiti, Libya, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, and the Coastal West Africa countries of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, and Togo.  The U.S. government is investing resources, including through the Prevention and Stabilization Fund, to bolster these country and region-specific plans. 
 
In line with the vision and goals of this landmark Act, the Strategy and resulting plans seek to break the costly cycle of instability and promote peaceful, resilient nations that become strong economic and security partners.  The work ahead focuses on four goals:  prevention, stabilization, partnerships, and management.  These plans embody an integrated, whole-of-government approach that seeks to harness the full range of U.S. tools across new and existing diplomatic, defense, and development programs.  Through partnerships, analysis, and adaptive learning, the Strategy and these plans aim to address drivers of conflict with a long-term view to support partner countries’ efforts to forge a more peaceful future. 

  • Partnerships:  The Strategy and these plans reflect a commitment to innovate how the U.S. government works with partners to advance shared interests in conflict prevention and stabilization.  They were developed through leadership from the field and emphasize forging partnerships at the national and local levels.
     
  • Analysis:  In the development of these plans, the United States recognized and assessed a diverse set of resiliencies and challenges.  The plans outline an initial assessment of complex and multifaceted drivers of violence and instability and will rely on data-informed analysis throughout their implementation.
     
  • Learning:  Over the long term, the United States will utilize rigorous monitoring and evaluation to document lessons learned and guide decisions.  The tools used will provide information to further assess progress towards key milestones while informing programmatic changes and strategic pivots.

Country and Region Partnerships
The United States is advancing this Strategy through increased engagement and partnerships in the priority partner countries and region.  U.S. government interagency teams conducted broad-ranging consultations with national and local leaders, including women, youth, and civil society members, to guide these planned partnerships.  On March 24, 2023, President Biden transmitted to Congress 10-year plans for advancing our joint efforts, including by aligning and expanding resources for conflict prevention and stabilization.  Specifically:

  • In Coastal West Africa, the United States aims to work with partners at all levels to prevent the destabilizing expansion of terrorism and violent extremism.  The United States is pursuing an integrated approach to governance and security in support of African-led initiatives and aligning our efforts with the plans of national governments, which take a holistic approach to mitigating conflict risks and vulnerabilities and strengthening social cohesion.
     
  • In Haiti, the United States aims to foster stabilization in communities impacted by violence while systematically addressing underlying drivers of conflict over time and mitigating the impact of future climate shocks.  The United States aims to build on mechanisms for consultations with a broad range of Haitian stakeholders to support locally driven peace and stability.
     
  • In Libya, the United States is focusing on laying the groundwork for an elected national government capable of governing, providing services, and maintaining security throughout the country.  The United States is pursuing a flexible, adaptive approach focused on community-level programs that can be scaled up as opportunities arise to support national elections; access to security, justice, accountability, and reconciliation; and pre-disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration efforts. 
     
  • In Mozambique, the United States supports the national government’s plans to promote reconciliation, inclusive and sustainable development, and resilience in historically marginalized and conflict-affected areas.  This includes efforts to counter vulnerabilities to terrorism, bolster recovery from its impacts, and address the root causes of instability in the north.  The United States aims to help the government and local partners foster pathways for inclusive economic growth to increase employment, especially among young Mozambicans.
     
  • In Papua New Guinea, U.S. efforts will reinforce our growing Pacific partnerships with a key country of the Pacific Islands.  We will seek to strengthen communities’ capacity to prevent and respond to chronic violence and conflict; support inclusive, sustainable, and equitable economic growth; improve justice systems; and professionalize the security forces.  This includes a focus on helping Papua New Guinean partners advance gender equity and equality, prevent and respond to gender-based violence, and elevate women peacebuilders.

Across these efforts, the U.S. government is investing heavily in monitoring, evaluation, learning, and adaptation.  U.S. government departments and agencies are better integrating U.S. diplomatic, development, and defense tools and enabling more effective, accountable partnerships.  Through these plans, the U.S. government will deepen engagement with key stakeholders in partner countries, as well as with civil society, multilateral and regional organizations, the private sector, and likeminded countries that are also engaged in addressing drivers of conflict in these priority countries and region.
 
For more information on our work to implement the Strategy, please visit this dedicated website.
 

“These plans represent a meaningful, long-term commitment by the United States to building the political and economic resilience of partner societies by making strategic investments in prevention to mitigate the underlying vulnerabilities that can lead to conflict and violence and are critical to achieving lasting peace.”   – President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.