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Biden Administration, Climate Action, Climate Change

FACT SHEET: Biden Announces New Initiatives at COP27 to Strengthen US Leadership in Tackling Climate Crisis

At the 27th U.N. Climate Conference (COP27), President Biden announced new initiatives to strengthen U.S. leadership tackling the climate crisis and galvanize global action and commitments. President Biden demonstrated that the United States is following through on its existing commitments and initiatives while also accelerating new and expanded domestic and global efforts © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via msnbc

The White House issued this fact sheet on new initiatives President Joe Biden announced at COP27 to strengthen US leadership in tackling climate change:

Today at the 27th U.N. Climate Conference (COP27), President Biden announced new initiatives to strengthen U.S. leadership tackling the climate crisis and galvanize global action and commitments. President Biden demonstrated that the United States is following through on its existing commitments and initiatives while also accelerating new and expanded domestic and global efforts. As President Biden said at last year’s COP in Glasgow, this is a decisive decade – and the United States is acting to lead a clean energy future that leverages market forces, technological innovation, and investments to tackle the climate crisis.  The initiatives the President announced today also reflect the global imperative to support vulnerable developing country partners in building resilience to a changing climate, helping them cope with a problem they did not create.
 
In less than 18 months, President Biden has renewed United States leadership in the fight against climate change.  The President is delivering on his Day One promises, positioning the United States to achieve our ambitious climate goals. President Biden has spearheaded the most significant domestic climate action in U.S. history, including passing the historic Inflation Reduction Act, signing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, ratifying the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, spurring a new era of clean American manufacturing, enhancing energy security at home and abroad, and driving down the costs of clean energy for consumers in the U.S. and around the world.
 
These efforts reflect President Biden’s belief that climate security, energy security, food security, and water security go hand-in-hand. As Russia’s unjust war in Ukraine disrupts energy markets, strains economies with rising prices, and threatens vulnerable countries with severe food shortages, efforts to accelerate climate action, growing clean energy economies, climate smart agriculture, and global resilience have become all the more urgent.
 
The initiatives the President is announcing and that the U.S. delegation will highlight throughout COP27 include:

  • Bolstering Global Climate Resilience – including doubling the U.S. pledge to the Adaptation Fund to $100 million and announcing over $150 million in new support to accelerate the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) efforts across Africa.  These build on the over $20 million that President Biden has announced this year to accelerate PREPARE’s work in Small Island Developing States.
     
  • Accelerating Global Climate Action – including launching a new initiative to support Egypt in deploying 10 GW of new wind and solar energy while decommissioning five GW of inefficient natural gas generation, strengthening proposed domestic methane regulations in the oil and gas sector that would reduce U.S. methane from covered sources by 87 percent below 2005 levels as well as other domestic and international action to tackle methane emissions and advance the Global Methane Pledge, and announcing new actions that would make the United States the first national government to require major suppliers to set Paris Agreement-aligned emissions reduction goals – leveraging the Federal Government’s over $630 billion in annual purchasing power.
     
  • Catalyzing Investment at The Scale Required to Tackle the Climate Crisis – including launching new and innovative approaches that strategically use public finance to unlock billions in private investment, such as the “Climate Finance +” initiative that will support developing countries in issuing green bonds; launching the Sustainable Banking Alliance to deepen developing countries’ sustainable financial markets; and making strategic investments that help to mobilize billions in private finance and facilitate the export of U.S. clean technologies.
     
  • Engaging All of Society in Tackling the Climate Crisis – including launching a Climate Gender Equity Fund, an Indigenous Peoples Finance Access Facility, and new exchanges to empower youth across the world to be leaders on resilience and clean energy in their communities.

The comprehensive list of announcements by the U.S. delegation at COP27 includes:
 
BOLSTERING GLOBAL CLIMATE RESILIENCE:
 
President Biden announced additional efforts to further accelerate the implementation of his 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.   These initiatives reflect the fact that a dollar invested in adaptation can result in $4-10 or more in benefits.  These additional efforts, as well as those announced by the United States during COP27, subject to Congressional notification and the completion of domestic procedures, include:

  • Doubling Our Pledge to the Adaptation Fund to $100 million – In Glasgow, we announced our intent to make our first-ever contribution to the Adaptation Fund through an initial pledge of $50 million.  Today, President Biden announced that the United States will double this multi-year pledge to $100 million.
     
  • Accelerating Adaptation in Africa – President Biden announced over $150 million to accelerate PREPARE’s work across the continent, in support of the Adaptation in Africa initiative he and President El-Sisi announced in June.  This includes U.S. support for:
     
    • Expanding access to early-warning systems for all of Africa – According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, better early-warning systems and adaptation can cut the number of people who need emergency assistance in half by 2030 — and from 200 million to just 10 million by 2050.  Today, President Biden announced new U.S. support to accelerate these efforts, including through a $13.6 million contribution to the Systematic Observations Financing Facility that will help fill weather, water, and climate observation gaps in Africa.  The United States will also invest $15 million to support the co-development and deployment of early-warning systems in Africa, leveraging the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s long-standing relationships with national and regional weather services across Africa.  Our scientists and emergency preparedness experts will work side by side with African partners to bring early warnings to Africa and support communities, leaders, businesses, and people in applying this information to reduce impacts and save lives. 
       
    • Building the capacity of African decision makers of today and tomorrow to accelerate adaptation across the continent for years to come – This includes contributing $10 million to support the launch of a new adaptation center in Egypt – the Cairo Center for Learning and Excellence on Adaptation and Resilience, announced by Egypt, which will build adaptation capacity across the African continent.  As part of our support for the Cairo Center, we are also working with African universities and central ministries to raise awareness of climate risk and strengthen capacity to apply adaptation solutions to manage those risks, especially when it comes to fiscal policy, budgeting and planning.  The United States is contributing an additional $2 million to the Resilience and Adaptation Mainstreaming Program to build the capacity of governments to manage climate risks and access finance.
       
    • Supporting locally-led efforts to adapt to climate impacts – This includes an additional $3.5 million in support for the Least Developed Countries Initiative for Effective Adaptation & Resilience, which is helping African countries like Uganda, Malawi, Gambia, and Burkina Faso to enhance access to adaptation finance for the most vulnerable.
       
    • Expanding access to risk-based insurance for the most vulnerable – This includes working with multilateral development banks and supporting the G7 Global Shield against Climate Risks to protect vulnerable people — in Africa as well as the Caribbean, Central America, and the Pacific.   In this context, the United States is enhancing its support for regional risk insurance pools, including contributing $12 million to the Africa Disaster Risk Financing Program and $12 million to ARC Ltd, helping countries cope with extreme weather events, food insecurity, and other issues exacerbated by climate change.
       
    • Mobilizing the private sector for adaptation and resilience – – The United States is contributing an additional $25 million to the African Union’s flagship Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI), which is hosted by the Egyptian government, to launch the AAI Food Security Accelerator, which will dramatically speed- and scale-up private sector investments in climate resilient food security in Africa. With U.S. support, the Accelerator will help identify, structure and de-risk a pipeline of transformative adaptation investments in food security, helping to unlock private capital that is already standing ready to invest in these innovative solutions, ranging from cold storage logistics to climate resilient agriculture and post harvesting processes. The United State is also launching a Call to Action to the private sector to tap into their ability to develop innovative adaptation solutions in ways that the public sector cannot, providing an additional $3.8 million to CRAFT TA Facility, and $2 million to launch an adaptation window of the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance to help develop new financial instruments and mechanisms to harness private investment in adaptation.
       
    • Further supporting climate smart food systems in Africa – This includes helping countries and communities to adapt their food systems to climate impacts, through at least $100 million in adaptation funding in FY 2022.  USAID also invested more than $300 million in Resilient Food Security Activities in FY 2022 across Africa that supports agricultural development and food security.  This year, Feed the Future expanded to eight additional African countries, the new Global Food Security Strategy further elevated inclusive and climate-resilient food systems, and climate information services work was expanded.  These efforts are yielding results.  For example, in 2022 in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, climate-resilient maize varieties were planted on seven million hectares across 13 African countries.  These heat, drought, and flood resistant maize varieties provided a 25% yield advantage, benefiting more than 44 million people.
       
    • Advancing Climate Security Through Sahel-Climate Advocacy and Peacebuilding with Pastoralists – This initiative aims to reduce the risk of farmer-herder climate change-related conflict in communities spanning the border of Niger and Benin by concurrently increasing herders’ access to political participation in local and national government and improving herders’ and farmers’ access to climate forecasts of rainfall, droughts, and other environmental factors.
       
  • Accelerating Adaptation in SIDS – The United States has also announced over $20 million to accelerate PREPARE’s work in SIDS.  This includes:
     
    • Expanding early-warning systems in the Pacific SIDS – This includes $15 million to increase the capacity of developing countries to understand, anticipate and prepare for climate impacts to public health and safety, food security, water resources, and coastal areas, which President Biden announced at the historic U.S.- Pacific Island Leaders Summit.  NOAA will also provide university scholarships to five individuals from the region to communication increase the pipeline of qualified forecasters able to deliver climate-smart decision support.  Additionally, NOAA will install roughly 20 satellite units across the region ensuring these forecasts and products reach the last mile.
       
    • Supporting climate resilience and sustainable development in SIDS through the Local2030 Islands Network – This includes advancing island-led resilience through engagement and technical support through the Network, which currently includes 20 island economies representing diverse geographical regions across the globe, with the largest concentration of members currently in the Pacific and Caribbean.  NOAA will expand its support for the Network to foster peer-to-peer learning opportunities, such as communities-of-practice, and support capacity-building activities, including training, research, extension and engagement, leveraging $4.5 million in new funding.
       
    • Supporting storm surge mapping – Starting with the Federated States of Micronesia, NOAA and USAID will develop storm surge risk maps to improve understanding of storm surge flooding vulnerability from landfalling tropical cyclones, providing critical information to save lives and avoid climate impacts.
       
  • Supporting Climate Affected Vulnerable Migrants – The United States announced a contribution of $5 million to the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund to support climate-affected vulnerable migrants.  This program underscores our commitment to the vision of the Global Compact for Migration, including improving cooperation on international migration.  It also advances the Biden Administration’s climate strategy, reflected in the 2021 White House Report on the Impact of Climate Change on Migration, to address the impact of climate change on vulnerable populations across the globe.

 
ACCELERATING GLOBAL CLIMATE ACTION:
 
President Biden believes that tackling the climate crisis and keeping the 1.5-degree C temperature goal within reach requires “all hands on deck” – demanding the mobilization of local, state, and national governments, the private sector, and philanthropies. At COP27, President Biden and his Administration announced new initiatives to advance this objective, including:

  • Accelerating Egypt’s Clean Energy Economy, Enhancing Climate Ambition, and Supporting Energy Security – Germany and the United States announced over $250 million in resources to unlock $10 billion in commercial investment to support Egypt’s clean energy economy.  The program will deploy 10 GW of new wind and solar energy while decommissioning five GW of inefficient natural gas generation.  This program, coordinated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will support Egypt’s Country Platform for the Nexus of Food, Water, and Energy (NWFE).  Egypt committed to enhance its Nationally Determined Contribution to incorporate a commitment to quadruple its installed renewables capacity share to 42% by 2030.  Egypt also committed to adopt an ambitious 2050 long-term strategy with a view to explore a net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target and kick-start the development of green hydrogen.  Additionally, Egypt committed to expand the use of zero-emission vehicles, sustainable public transport, and other solutions for reducing GHG emissions from transport.  The three countries committed to cooperate on reducing methane emissions from Egypt’s oil and gas sector.  These commitments will yield major climate benefits by reducing Egypt’s power sector emissions by about one fifth and cutting methane pollution.  They will also enhance energy security by freeing up over two billion cubic meters of gas.
     
  • Expanding the Global Methane Pledge to Rapidly Reduce Global Temperatures While Boosting Energy Security – Reducing methane emissions is the fastest way to lower global temperatures in the near term, avoid dangerous climate tipping points, and alleviate global adaptation burdens.  Limiting warming to 1.5°C will require dramatic reductions in global methane emissions of at least 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels, as called for in the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) launched by the United States and European Union at COP26.  The GMP has now been endorsed by over 130 countries representing over half of global methane emissions.

    The oil and gas sector represents the fastest and deepest methane emissions reductions opportunities to achieve the GMP target.  Capturing flared and leaked gas in the oil and gas sector is also a critical near-term solution to boost global gas supplies and support energy security, as 260 billion cubic meters of gas are currently wasted every year from flaring and methane emissions within the sector.  This is why President Biden launched the GMP Energy Pathway at the Major Economies Forum in June 2022, alongside the European Union and 11 other countries, to accelerate global reductions in fossil energy methane.

    Today, President Biden announced major new U.S. actions and welcomed new international actions to rapidly reduce methane emissions, particularly in the energy sector, including:
     
    • Strengthening proposed domestic methane standards in the oil and gas sector that would reduce wasted energy and harmful emissions from covered sources by 87 percent below 2005 levels while delivering economic benefits – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is strengthening the agency’s proposed standards to cut methane and other harmful air pollutants from the oil and natural gas industry.  If finalized, these standards will protect workers and communities, maintain and create high-quality, union-friendly jobs, and promote U.S. innovation and manufacturing of critical new, all while delivering significant economic benefits through increased recovery of wasted gas.  The new proposal also includes a ground-breaking “Super-Emitter Response Program” that would require operators to respond to credible third-party reports of high-volume methane leaks. 
       
    • Updating the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan – Building upon the first-ever U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan released at COP26, President Biden today unveiled an updated plan showcasing enhanced ambition and progress to achieve deep methane reductions in the United States, while cutting consumer costs, spurring job creation, and securing economic gains. The plan includes more than $20 billion of new investments to reduce methane emissions from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and annual appropriations.  The updated plan outlines how the Administration is taking over 50 actions to tackle methane emissions at home.
       
    • Welcoming over 130 countries which have now endorsed the Global Methane Pledge – The GMP now covers over half of global methane emissions and over two-thirds of the global economy.  In its first year, the GMP has spurred implementation including significant progress on national methane action plans and new landmark policies and initiatives across all major sectors.
       
    • Launching a Joint Declaration from Energy Importers and Exporters on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Fossil Fuels – Launched alongside the European Union, Japan, Canada, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the declaration unites major energy importers and exporters to minimize flaring, methane, and CO2 emissions across the fossil energy value chain to the fullest extent practicable.  These countries will support enhanced policy action, cooperation on methane measurement, and public and private sector engagement to achieve these goals.
       
    • Welcoming the launch of the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) – Today, the UN Environment Programs’ International Methane Emissions Observatory launched MARS, a new system to tackle methane “super-emitters” by providing countries and companies with data to enable action on major emissions sources.
       
    • Welcoming enhanced action on methane mitigation from international partners, including Nigeria, Canada, and Mexico – All of these countries are among the 20 largest emitters of methane in the oil and gas sector.  Nigeria celebrated the finalization and publication of its first-ever methane regulations in its oil and gas sector.  Canada reaffirmed its commitment to reduce oil and gas methane emissions by at least 75% by 2030 below 2012 levels through strengthened regulatory action and industry partnerships.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and PEMEX also launched cooperation to reduce methane emissions in Mexico’s oil and gas sector, tackling an emissions source that rivals the emissions from Mexico’s entire power sector.  The U.S Trade and Development Agency is also supporting partners in methane abatement by leveraging the best-in-class technical expertise of U.S. industry in this area, including by funding a series of three reverse trade missions in 2023 to familiarize partners with the latest U.S. methane abatement technologies and services.
       
  • Launching the Green Shipping Challenge – Following President Biden’s call to action at his June 2022 MEF, the United States and Norway launched the Green Shipping Challenge at COP27, with more than 40 major announcements from countries, ports, and companies on the actions they are taking to help align the shipping sector with the goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C.  For our part, the United States announced initiatives including: three new bilateral workstreams focused on facilitating green shipping corridors with the Republic of Korea, Canada, and the United Kingdom, the development of a U.S. maritime decarbonization strategy, and the launch of a Green Shipping Corridors Initiation Project with $1.5 million, subject to Congressional notification and the completion of domestic procedures, to support feasibility studies for green shipping corridors involving developing countries. These efforts build on U.S. leadership in zero-emission shipping, including $3 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act to support zero-emission port equipment, technology, and climate action plans; more than $700 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to make U.S. ports more efficient and resilient; and U.S. efforts at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to advance a goal of phasing out greenhouse gas emissions from the international shipping sector to zero no later than 2050.
     
  • Accelerating Zero Emissions Solutions in Ukraine and the EU Through Advanced Nuclear:  This announcement launches two projects that showcase the use of innovative small modular reactor (SMR) technologies for powering global decarbonization efforts and providing options to achieve net-zero economies in hard-to-abate energy sectors.  These include (i) commencing a 2-year Ukraine Clean Fuels from SMRs Pilot demonstration project in Ukraine to efficiently produce clean hydrogen fuels from SMR and cutting-edge electrolysis technologies and to establish new avenues to achieve food security through production of clean ammonia for fertilizer production, and (ii) launching a new initiative, Project Phoenix, to move Europe from coal-fired plants to SMRs while retaining and retraining local jobs through U.S. support for coal-to-SMR feasibility studies and supporting activities.
     
  • Establishing an International Climate Hub for Climate-Smart Agriculture – Modeled after USDA domestic Climate Hubs, USDA intends to create an International Climate Hub to further support global science-based, climate-informed decision-making.  USDA Climate Hubs serve as the premier model for developing and delivering science-based, region-specific information and technologies to U.S. agricultural and natural resource managers that enable climate-informed decision-making.  By creating a new International Climate Hub, USDA will help support goals set out in PREPARE, the Global Methane Pledge, and the Global Fertilizer Challenge.  By sharing the best practices and research on climate-smart agriculture and forestry, including those gained from international coalitions and research consortia, we can help address climate change on a global-scale, build out new and better markets for U.S. products and make agriculture production more efficient and productive everywhere. 
     
  • Announcing New Initiatives for Governments to Lead by Example
    • Engaging U.S. Federal Government suppliers – Today, President Biden announced historic new action that would make the United States the first national government to require major suppliers to set Paris Agreement-aligned emissions reduction goals.  This action would reduce GHGs and protect the Federal Government’s supply chains from climate-related financial risks.  As the world’s single largest buyer of goods and services – with over $630 billion in spending last year alone, climate change poses significant financial risks to the Federal Government.  Through the Federal Supplier Climate Risks and Resilience Proposed Rule, major Federal Government contractors would be required to publicly disclose their GHG emissions and climate-related financial risks and set science-based emissions reduction targets.
       
    • Launching the Net-Zero Government Initiative – This initiative leverages the catalytic role of national governments in accelerating the implementation and achievement of countries’ climate targets.   Participating countries commit to achieving net-zero emissions from national government operations by no later than 2050, developing a roadmap and interim targets by COP28 that outlines their pathway for getting there, and publishing the roadmap upon completion.  Over 15 countries will join the United States in this Initiative.
       
    • Launching the Subnational Climate Action Leaders’ Exchange – The U.S. State Department and Bloomberg Philanthropies are supporting a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Subnational Climate Action Leaders Exchange (SCALE), to help cities, states, and regions develop and implement net-zero, climate-resilient targets and roadmaps.  SCALE will empower subnational champions to drive ambition at the national and international level and will leverage action and advocacy organized around a set of high-level goals needed to keep a 1.5-aligned, climate-resilient future within reach.  In its first phase, SCALE will focus on accelerating implementation of the Global Methane Pledge and its call for a 30 percent reduction in methane emissions by 2030.
       
  • Launching the Net-Zero Game Changers Initiative – This initiative accelerates game-changing climate innovations and supercharges the public and private climate innovation ecosystem to help the United States meet President Biden’s goal of reaching net-zero emissions by no later than 2050.  To launch the initiative, the White House Climate Policy Office, Office of Management and Budget, and Office of Science and Technology Policy released a new report, U.S. Innovation to Meet 2050 Climate Goals, which describes 37 game-changing R&D opportunities identified across U.S. Federal agencies. With inclusive and intentional innovation, these innovations can help propel the United States and the rest of the world towards an affordable, equitable, net-zero energy system.

 
CATALYZING INVESTMENT AT THE SCALE REQUIRED TO TACKLE THE CLIMATE CRISIS
 
The United States is committed to not only meeting President Biden’s ambitious goal to quadruple U.S. climate finance to over $11 billion a year and working with other countries to meet the goal of mobilizing $100 billion, but also to using public finance in new and innovative ways to unlock the much larger pools of capital that will be required to tackle the climate crisis.  These efforts are in direct support of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.  These efforts include:

  • Launching “Climate Finance +” – The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and USAID are collaborating to accelerate the use of innovative finance mechanisms that aim to leverage billions in new public and private investment in low and lower-middle income countries.  This Climate Finance + effort will support potential green bonds and other climate-related financing through MCC technical assistance in Indonesia, Mozambique, and Zambia and USAID support for the development of green bonds in at least five additional countries via public-private partnerships.
     
  • Investing over $2.3 billion in Innovative Financing for Climate in 2022 through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation – The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 it invested more than $2.3 billion to combat the climate crisis through mitigation and resilience projects that have a positive developmental impact.  Recognizing the urgent need to scale up private-investment in adaptation efforts in developing countries, DFC has announced a major push to accelerate its investments in this area.  In FY 2022, more than $390 million of the agency’s investments went to projects that helped to bolster developing countries’ resilience, and an additional $200 million went to deals that will generate adaptation co-benefits.  Building on this momentum, DFC is accepting climate adaptation business proposals for financing to support resilience in developing countries, with an emphasis on four sectors: agriculture, water, built environment, and health.  DFC’s investments also helped support clean energy solutions that provide reliable, affordable energy to help developing countries meet rising demand and support economic development. 
     
  • Unlocking Billions in Finance and Facilitating U.S. Clean Technology Exports Through Strategic Investments by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and U.S. Export-Import Bank – In April 2021, President Biden announced the launch of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency’s (USTDA) Global Partnership for Climate-Smart Infrastructure to connect U.S. industry to major clean energy and transportation infrastructure projects in emerging economies.  At COP27, USTDA announced that it has already funded more than 50 activities through the Partnership that will help its partners in developing and middle-income countries achieve their energy and transportation sector climate mitigation and adaptation goals.  These activities are designed to help unlock more than $65 billion in climate finance and support more than $15 billion in U.S. exports.  Additionally, the U.S. Export-Import Bank announced that it has provided over $175 million in financing to support U.S. exports of climate friendly technologies, its highest volume of authorizations for clean technology exports in years.
     
  • Launching the Sustainable Banking Alliance –USAID will help deepen the sustainable financial sectors in developing countries by partnering with community financial institutions and banking associations across the globe to develop tools and capacity focused on climate financing, climate risk, and carbon accounting and will encourage climate finance target-setting for community banks.  The activity will be launched with two pilot countries, Colombia and Rwanda, with an initial total budget of just over $1 million.  The Alliance supports USAID’s Action Plan for Climate and SDG Investment.

 
ENGAGING ALL OF SOCIETY IN TACKLING THE CLIMATE CRISIS:
 
President Biden believes that tackling the climate crisis must take an inclusive approach, engaging all members of society.  At COP27, the United States announced new initiatives to advance this objective, including:

  • Launching the Climate Gender Equity Fund – With initial seed funding of $6 million, USAID is co-launching a new Climate Gender Equity Fund in, partnership with Amazon, which will leverage private sector contributions to help provide women climate leaders with technical skills, networks, and capital to develop and scale climate solutions.  The Fund is enabled by USAID’s commitment to gender-responsive climate action, including its allocating more than $21 million from the Gender Equity and Equality Action (GEEA) Fund, surpassing its $14 million COP26 commitment.
     
  • Investing in Climate Leadership for Egyptian Women – USAID is spurring climate action by investing in education and skills building for women and youth.  USAID has made a $23 million initial investment in a new nine-year program that aims to build a more inclusive Egyptian workforce, with an emphasis on sectors with the potential to contribute to climate goals such as environment and energy.  
     
  • Launching the Indigenous Peoples Finance Access Facility – This Facility will enable the continued climate stewardship by Indigenous peoples and local communities improving their access to climate finance.  This three-year, $2 million-dollar program, implemented by Indigenous peoples within Conservation International, will provide trainings, tools, and workshops to build long-term capacity and enhance access to climate finance.
     
  • Empowering Youth as Resilience and Clean Energy Leaders – The U.S. State Department is launching two three-week, in-person On-Demand Youth Leadership Program exchanges for approximately 40 high school-aged youth and adult mentors from the United States and countries across Africa to develop a deeper understanding among young leaders about climate adaptation and clean energy and to foster their ability to provide solutions to the climate crisis in their home communities. The exchanges are scheduled for spring 2023.
Biden Administration, Climate Action, Climate Change, News & Photo Features

FACT SHEET: Biden’s Leadership on Tackling Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad Galvanizes Unprecedented Momentum at Start of UN Climate Conference (COP27)

One of President Biden’s challenges is persuading nations not to abandon climate change goals because of the strain on fossil fuel supplies and prices created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rather, the crisis should incentivize the transition to locally available clean, renewable energy. Here, Antwerp shows an “all-of-the-above” source of fuel, wind, nuclear and fossil © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

In less than two years since taking office, President Biden’s leadership to tackle the climate crisis has boosted U.S. manufacturing and deployment of cost-cutting clean energy technologies, put the country on a durable path aligned with limiting warming to 1.5 °C, and galvanized global action by partners and the private sector – building unprecedented momentum towards achieving critical climate goals and strengthening global resilience. As more than a hundred countries gather for the 27th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the United States will work with partners to enhance global ambition to accelerate growth of the clean energy economy, avert the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, and help lower- and middle- income countries build resilience to climate impacts. In fact, the President has pledged to work with Congress to increase U.S. international climate finance to over $11 billion a year – which would make the United States the single largest contributor of climate finance. These actions are key to strengthening global security – including energy, water, food, and health security – which has been made all the more urgent following Russia’s war against Ukraine that has disrupted energy markets, strained economies with rising prices, and threatened vulnerable countries with severe food shortages.

At COP27 and beyond, the United States will encourage countries – particularly major economies – and the private sector to not only implement existing commitments and goals, but to also enhance commitments and goals to help close the gap between current pledges and what the latest science tells us is urgently needed.  And the United States will also encourage the international community to accelerate vulnerable countries’ ability to implement adaptation efforts. Through the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience, PREPARE, the United States is rapidly increasing its support of adaptation and resilience programming to help more than half a billion people in developing countries adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change.

On November 11, President Biden will be at COP27 to build on efforts by the United States to accelerate growth of an equitable clean energy economy that will cut consumer energy costs, reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, advance the global climate fight, and help the most vulnerable build resilience to climate impacts. The United States is leading by example at home and abroad:

  • Leading at Home by Taking the Most Ambitious Climate Actions in U.S. History.  The President is delivering on his day one promise by positioning the United States to achieve our ambitious goals of reducing emissions 50-52% below 2005 levels in 2030 and to net-zero by 2050 through a series of unprecedented climate actions.  These actions will not only reduce emissions, but will bolster energy security, help families save money on their energy bills, create good-paying jobs for workers and spur a new era of clean American manufacturing, advance environmental justice, and ensure healthier air and cleaner water for communities.  Key actions include passing the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), ratifying the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, tackling super-pollutants like methane, leveraging the purchasing power of the federal government, advancing decarbonization across all sectors, ensuring the clean energy transition benefits disadvantaged communities, and spurring innovation and supporting a new era of clean American manufacturing.
     
  • Supporting Vulnerable Countries in Building Resilience to Current and Future Climate Impacts by implementing the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE). PREPARE aims to accelerate the ability of developing countries to adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change by preparing knowledge, plans, programs, finance, and private capital for adaptation and resilience efforts. Nineteen U.S. Federal agencies and departments are committed to working with partner countries to help them build resilience to climate impacts on food systems, water, infrastructure, health, and the economy.
     
  • Leading Global Efforts to Keep the 1.5 °C Goal within Reach. We are implementing the President’s major initiatives and priorities to accelerate global climate action.  This includes the Plan to Conserve Global Forests, mobilizing climate finance through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), advancing implementation of the Global Methane Pledge (GMP), decarbonizing transportation (e.g., zero emissions vehicles, shipping, and aviation), accelerating innovation in and deployment of clean energy technologies, and enhancing food security.

LEADING AT HOME BY TAKING THE MOST AMBITIOUS CLIMATE ACTIONS IN U.S. HISTORY

  • The Inflation Reduction Act is by far the most ambitious climate and clean energy legislation in U.S. history, with $370 billion for building a clean energy economy, cutting consumer energy costs, combating the climate crisis, advancing environmental justice, and enhancing climate resilience.  The Inflation Reduction Act is expected to more than double U.S. clean energy production (e.g., solar, wind, battery storage, and more), save families hundreds of dollars per year on energy costs, and create millions of good-paying jobs, all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about 1 gigaton in 2030 – 10 times more climate impact than any other U.S. legislation ever enacted. This law also leans in on ensuring communities are prepared for climate impacts already here, by funding coastal resilience, drought, and tools to help communities make science-backed decisions.
     
  • The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) delivers record support for upgrading the power grid to transmit more clean energy and withstand extreme weather, building a nationwide network of electric vehicle chargers, expanding public transit and passenger rail, investing in drought and wildfire preparedness, and cleaning up legacy pollution.
     
  • Bipartisan Senate Ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and helping to phase down global production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), super-polluting chemicals that are hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide while also spurring growth in domestic manufacturing jobs in making HFC alternatives, where American companies are already leading the way.  As more countries join the United States in ratifying this amendment, we can prevent up to half a degree Celsius of warming this century.
     
  • Tackling super-pollutants like methane through implementation of the comprehensive U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan and measures in the Inflation Reduction Act and BIL covering the oil and gas industry, agriculture, buildings and addressing abandoned mine lands, and orphan oil and gas wells – a source of toxic pollution and methane emissions.
     
  • Leading by example through the Federal Sustainability Plan to reduce emissions across 300,000 buildings, 600,000 vehicles, and $650 billion in annual purchasing power, and launching new initiatives like the Federal Buy Clean Initiative to spur private-sector commitments to reduce industrial emissions and the White House-HHS Health Care Sector Climate Pledge, which has secured aligned commitments from more than 100 health systems and industry organizations committed to resilience and decarbonization.
     
  • Addressing Climate Related Financial Risk to the federal government, real economy, and financial system by refining approaches and tools to assess fiscal risk in the President’s budget, conducting sensitivity analysis to federal programs, and undertaking macroeconomic risk analysis as well as through leadership from U.S. independent financial regulators improving their understanding and management of these risks, for example through the proposed climate disclosure rule by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the OCC’s and FDIC’s proposed principles on climate-related financial risk management for large banks.
     
  • Taking decisive action to decarbonize all key sectors – including power, transportation, buildings, industry, and lands and waters:
     
    • Power Sector Deployment – securing historic clean power investments that will more than double wind, solar, and battery storage deployment; jumpstart the American offshore wind industry; support hydrogen infrastructure; fast-track the process for permitting and deploying clean energy and transmission projects.
       
    • Clean Energy Research – through the recently launched Net Zero Gamechangers Initiative, driving the major innovation breakthroughs that we know the world needs to solve the climate crisis by addressing the toughest remaining technological challenges and cost hurdles in key sectors, and rapidly advance solutions to help achieve our climate and economic competitiveness goals. Billions of dollars have been committed to coordinate research so far on six key areas:  hydrogen, long-duration energy storage, carbon dioxide removal technologies, floating off-shore wind, advanced geothermal, and industrial heat.
       
    • Transportation – securing the largest investments ever in public transportation, passenger rail, an electric vehicle (EV) charging network, hydrogen infrastructure, and battery supply chains; rallying automakers and autoworkers around an electric transportation future, by setting a national target of 50% electric vehicle sales share in 2030, spurring more than $85 billion of investment in American manufacturing of EVs, batteries, and chargers, and launching the American Battery Materials Initiative; finalized strongest passenger vehicle standards in American history to increase average fuel economy to 49 miles per gallon – reducing emissions and savings drivers money at the pump; and advancing cleaner transit, shipping, and aviation; launching the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) grand challenge to achieve a minimum of a 50% reduction in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional fuel and supply sufficient SAF to meet 100% of aviation fuel demand by 2050.
       
    • Buildings – making historic investments in energy efficient homes and decarbonization, with more than $1 billion to expand weatherization and incentivize electrification, with more than $1 billion to expand weatherization and incentivize electric appliance and efficiency upgrades that will lower energy bills and emissions; updated energy-saving appliance and equipment standards to save households an average of $100 a year; accelerate next-generation clean building technologies.
       
    • Industrial – launched a breakthrough “Buy Clean” initiative leveraging federal standard setting and procurement and secured historic investments to reduce industrial emissions, including support for clean hydrogen, carbon capture, and cleaner industrial facilities for steel, iron, cement and other energy-intensive materials; and advanced manufacturing processes.
       
    • Lands and Waters – secured historic investments to enlist nature-based solutions in the fight against climate change with over $20 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act to support climate-smart farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners and the BIL support for climate resilience and ecosystem restoration; launched new initiatives to support conservation and carbon sequestration, including the America the Beautiful initiative to conserve 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030; and issued an Executive Order on strengthening America’s forests.
       
  • Ensuring the clean energy transition benefits disadvantaged communities by implementing the Justice40 Initiative to deliver 40% of overall benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.
     
  • Investing in economic revitalization of coal communities by creating the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, chaired by the White House and including eleven federal agencies, dedicated to increasing federal investment in land remediation and reclamation, economic diversification, and workforce training strategies for displaced fossil energy workers in diverse communities across the U.S.; and by directing significant new resources to fossil energy communities through the BIL and Inflation Reduction Act. 
     
  • Spurring innovation and supporting a new era of clean American manufacturing by passing the CHIPS and Science Act, using trade policy and Buy Clean actions to incentivize low-carbon production of key materials like steel, and invoking the Defense Production Act for five critical clean energy technologies.

LEADING GLOBAL EFFORTS TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE COUNTRIES IN BUILDING RESILIENCE TO CURRENT AND FUTURE CLIMATE IMPACTS

  • Scaling up U.S. public finance for climate adaptation and resilience by advancing President Biden’s commitment to work with Congress to increase U.S. international climate adaptation finance to $3 billion a year by 2024, a six-fold increase from the highest historical funded level. 
  • Helping more than half a billion people in developing countries adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change through ambitious efforts outlined in a whole-of-government PREPARE Action Plan by:
     
    • Responding to the UN Secretary-General’s call to ensure “Early Warning for All” by 2027 and increasing co-production and use of climate information;
       
    • Equipping the decision-makers of today and tomorrow with the skills, knowledge, networks, and outlook needed to adapt to climate impacts;
       
    • Building capacity to mainstream adaptation into policies, programs, and budgets and to support locally led adaptation;
       
    • Improving partner governments’ ability to assess, plan for, and implement programs that increase resilience to the impacts of climate change on food security, water, health, and infrastructure;
       
    • Increasing the amount and quality of finance that accelerates climate adaptation and resilience and supports gender-responsive, locally-led adaptation;
       
    • Assisting partner governments to assess, plan, and budget for adaptation costs, and scale up financing in all sectors;
       
    • Facilitating increased investment from the philanthropic and private sectors to advance adaptation and resilience in climate-vulnerable partner countries; and
       
    • Increasing and enhancing the use and effectiveness of disaster risk financing tools to support climate resilience.

LEADING GLOBAL EFFORTS TO KEEP THE 1.5 DEGREE GOAL WITHIN REACH

  • Executing the President’s Plan to Conserve Global Forests by working to help drive progress forward in each of the Plan’s four key objectives since President Biden launched the Plan at COP26, including building a whole-of-government approach to deliver on this ambitious, decade-long plan to support global efforts to halt and reverse deforestation by leveraging a range of diplomatic, policy, and financing tools.  The United States will continue this leadership through Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s co-Chairing of the Forest Climate Leaders Partnership, working alongside over 20 governments who are committed to advancing key actions and initiatives and acting to halt and reverse global deforestation by 2030.
     
  • Rapidly innovating and deploying clean energy solutions by bringing together the global community for the first-ever Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh last September, anchored by the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and Mission Innovation (MI).  Together, 34 countries and stakeholders from the entire energy ecosystem of government, businesses, innovators, civil society, and youth around the world gathered to take action on the clean energy transition and enhance investment including the launch of the Zero-Emissions Government Fleet Declaration, regional hydrogen hubs, and new funding in carbon management programs.
     
  • Scaling up climate finance by advancing President Biden’s commitment at the 2021 UN General Assembly to work with Congress to increase U.S. international climate finance to over $11 billion a year by requesting the funds and authorities necessary to achieve this goal in his Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Request.  Recognizing that catalyzing private investment will be critical to reaching the scale of resources that will be required, the United States is also focused on using our finance in innovative ways, including to unlock the much larger sums of private finance that will be needed.  These efforts are integral to the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which has climate and energy security as one of its central pillars.  For instance, the United States recently made a $950 million loan contribution to the Clean Technology Fund which will support MDB efforts to help key emerging market countries accelerate coal transition, which is expected to catalyze billions in private finance.  The multilateral development banks (MDBs) are also a key part of our strategy for scaling up climate finance to support climate action in developing countries. The United States is leading the charge in encouraging the MDBs to both increase their climate finance and make it more accessible to recipients.  These actions would help the MDBs build on their all-time-high of $66 billion in climate finance provided in 2020, with $38 billion going to low- and middle-income economies. USAID is also engaging directly with private sector partners to mobilize finance at scale using our grants and technical assistance to provide risk-sharing for investment in critical climate solutions, as well as building the pipeline for bankable projects.
     
  • Advancing the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) by building a coalition that now includes over 130 countries committed to reduce global anthropogenic methane emissions at least 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030, as called for in the Global Methane Pledge that President Biden and European Commission President Von der Leyen launched at COP26.  To achieve the fastest and deepest methane reductions, President Biden announced a new GMP Energy Pathway focusing on fossil energy methane emissions at the June 2022 Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF), alongside the European Union and 11 other countries.  The Energy Pathway mobilizes new policies, projects, technical assistance, and investment resources to dramatically reducing flaring, venting, and leakage of methane from fossil energy operations.  Achieving the full methane mitigation potential in this sector could avoid 0.1°C warming by midcentury and would boost global energy security by preventing the waste of 260 billion cubic meters of gas per year—equivalent to over one-third of Russia’s annual gas production.
     
  • Accelerating Zero-Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) Deployment by building a growing coalition of countries committed to a collective 2030 goal of ZEVs comprising 50% of new light-duty vehicle sales by 2030, to include battery electric, fuel cell electric, and plug-in hybrid vehicles.  In addition to the United States, the coalition includes Canada, Chile, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
     
  • Advancing Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate), launched at COP26 by the United States and the United Arab Emirates. AIM for Climate and its growing network of over 275 partners seek to drive more rapid and transformative climate action by increasing investment and support for climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation. AIM for Climate achieved its goal of doubling the total increased investment mobilized by its partners from $4 billion announced at COP26 to over $8 billion at COP27, which includes over $1 billion from 30 partner-led innovation sprints.  The United States has also announced plans to host the AIM for Climate Summit on May 8-10, 2023 in Washington, DC.
     
  • Expanding the First Movers Coalition launched by President Biden and the World Economic Forum at COP26. The First Movers Coalition is the flagship U.S. public-private partnership to commercialize clean technologies through advance purchase commitments. Its corporate members have pledged $10 billion, the world’s strongest demand signal, for bringing emerging innovations to scale. On its first anniversary, the First Movers Coalition has grown to more than 60 companies, representing more than 10% of the global Fortune 2000 by market value, as well as ten governments. Each member company has made unprecedented purchasing commitments by the end of this decade in order to drive investment in next-generation clean steel, aluminum, and cement; near-zero carbon aviation fuels; zero-emission trucking and shipping; and carbon dioxide removal.  These commitments will drive down the green premium of emerging technologies and bring competitive technologies to market this decade that are needed to decarbonize so-called “hard-to-abate” sectors of the global economy that produce a third of global emissions.
     
  • Demonstrating Clean Energy Technologies by rallying sixteen partner countries to collectively mobilize $94 billion in public funding to build commercial-scale demonstration projects that the IEA says are needed this decade to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 – meeting a challenge that President Biden issued to other world leaders at his June MEF. Partners that joined the President in announcing contributions earlier this year included Australia, Canada, European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sweden, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
     
  • Bolstering Climate & Food Security, including through President Biden’s September 2022 announcement at UNGA of over $2.9 billion in new U.S. assistance to address global food insecurity stemming from climate change, COVID-19, and Russia’s unprovoked and ongoing war against Ukraine, which builds on the $6.9 billion in U.S. government assistance to support global food security already committed this year.  The United States is providing additional funding to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, the African Development Bank, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development that will promote climate resilient food systems. Following President Biden’s call to action at the June 2022 Major Economies Forum, at COP27 the United States and partners will announce funding commitments to the Global Fertilizer Challenge to advance fertilizer efficiency and reduce the impact of shortages on food security.
Climate Change, Democracy, Foreign Relations, Global Affairs, Human Rights, Joe Biden, News & Photo Features, President Joe Biden

Biden at UN Slams Russia’s Ukraine Invastion, Calls for Action on Climate Change, Human Rights, Global Health, Nuclear NonProliferation

President Joe Biden at the United Nations General Assembly: So let’s stand together to again declare the unmistakable resolve that nations of the world are united still, that we stand for the values of the U.N. Charter, that we still believe by working together we can bend the arc of history toward a freer and more just world for all our children, although none of us have fully achieved it. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features via msnbc.

President Joe Biden presented America’s foreign policy manifesto in his speech to the United Nations 77th General Assembly in New York, asserting a world striving toward equity, shared progress, social, economic and environmental justice, just as he has endeavored to implement at home. He called out Russia, China and others for their human rights abuses, called for climate action, global health initiatives, food security, cooperation rather than competition on the technology advances to improve the lives of everyone. He called for diplomacy instead of conflict and a reaffirmation of the rule of law and the essential founding principles embodied in the United Nations Charter.

“So let’s stand together to again declare the unmistakable resolve that nations of the world are united still, that we stand for the values of the U.N. Charter, that we still believe by working together we can bend the arc of history toward a freer and more just world for all our children, although none of us have fully achieved it,” Biden declared. “We’re not passive witnesses to history; we are the authors of history. We can do this — we have to do it — for ourselves and for our future, for humankind.”

Here is an edited, highlighted transcript – Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

11:08 A.M. EDT
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you. 
 
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, my fellow leaders, in the last year, our world has experienced great upheaval: a growing crisis in food insecurity; record heat, floods, and droughts; COVID-19; inflation; and a brutal, needless war — a war chosen by one man, to be very blunt. 
 
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Let us speak plainly.  A permanent member of the United Nations Security Council invaded its neighbor, attempted to erase a sovereign state from the map. 
 
Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of the United Nations Charter — no more important than the clear prohibition against countries taking the territory of their neighbor by force. 
 
Again, just today, President Putin has made overt nuclear threats against Europe and a reckless disregard for the responsibilities of the non-proliferation regime. 
 
Now Russia is calling — calling up more soldiers to join the fight.  And the Kremlin is organizing a sham referenda to try to annex parts of Ukraine, an extremely significant violation of the U.N. Charter. 
 
This world should see these outrageous acts for what they are.  Putin claims he had to act because Russia was threatened.  But no one threatened Russia, and no one other than Russia sought conflict. 
 
In fact, we warned it was coming.  And with many of you, we worked to try to avert it.
 
Putin’s own words make his true purpose unmistakable.  Just before he invaded, Putin asserted — and I quote — Ukraine was “created by Russia” and never had, quote, “real statehood.”
 
And now we see attacks on schools, railway stations, hospitals, wa- — on centers of Ukrainian history and culture. 

In the past, even more horrifying evidence of Russia’s atrocity and war crimes: mass graves uncovered in Izyum; bodies, according to those that excavated those bodies, showing signs of torture. 
 
This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state, plain and simple, and Ukraine’s right to exist as a people.  Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe, that should not — that should make your blood run cold.
 
That’s why 141 nations in the General Assembly came together to unequivocally condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine.  The United States has marshaled massive levels of security assistance and humanitarian aid and direct economic support for Ukraine — more than $25 billion to date. 
 
Our allies and partners around the world have stepped up as well.  And today, more than 40 countries represented in here have contributed billions of their own money and equipment to help Ukraine defend itself. 
 
The United States is also working closely with our allies and partners to impose costs on Russia, to deter attacks against NATO territory, to hold Russia accountable for the atrocities and war crimes.
 
Because if nations can pursue their imperial ambitions without consequences, then we put at risk everything this very institution stands for.  Everything.
 
Every victory won on the battlefield belongs to the courageous Ukrainian soldiers.  But this past year, the world was tested as well, and we did not hesitate. 
 
We chose liberty.  We chose sovereignty.  We chose principles to which every party to the United Nations Charter is beholding.  We stood with Ukraine.
 
Like you, the United States wants this war to end on just terms, on terms we all signed up for: that you cannot seize a nation’s territory by force.  The only country standing in the way of that is Russia. 
 
So, we — each of us in this body who is determined to uphold the principles and beliefs we pledge to defend as members of the United Nations — must be clear, firm, and unwavering in our resolve. 
 
Ukraine has the same rights that belong to every sovereign nation.  We will stand in solidarity with Ukraine.  We will stand in solidarity against Russia’s aggression.  Period.
 
The US Will Defend Democracy

Now, it’s no secret that in the contest between democracy and autocracy, the United States — and I, as President — champion a vision for our world that is grounded in the values of democracy. 
 
The United States is determined to defend and strengthen democracy at home and around the world.  Because I believe democracy remains humanity’s greatest instrument to address the challenges of our time. 
 
We’re working with the G7 and likeminded countries to prove democracies can deliver for their citizens but also deliver for the rest of the world as well. 
 
Reaffirm the United Nations’ Founding Principles

But as we meet today, the U.N. Charter — the U.N. Charter’s very basis of a stable and just rule-based order is under attack by those who wish to tear it down or distort it for their own political advantage. 
 
And the United Nations Charter was not only signed by democracies of the world, it was negotiated among citizens of dozens of nations with vastly different histories and ideologies, united in their commitment to work for peace. 
 
As President Truman said in 1945, the U.N. Charter — and I quote — is “proof that nations, like men, can state their differences, can face them, and then can find common ground on which to stand.”  End of quote.
 
That common ground was so straightforward, so basic that, today, 193 of you — 193 member states — have willingly embraced its principles.  And standing up for those principles for the U.N. Charter is the job of every responsible member state. 
 
I reject the use of violence and war to conquer nations or expand borders through bloodshed.
 
To stand against global politics of fear and coercion; to defend the sovereign rights of smaller nations as equal to those of larger ones; to embrace basic principles like freedom of navigation, respect for international law, and arms control — no matter what else we may disagree on, that is the common ground upon which we must stand. 
 
If you’re still committed to a strong foundation for the good of every nation around the world, then the United States wants to work with you. 
 
The UN Should Become More Inclusive

I also believe the time has come for this institution to become more inclusive so that it can better respond to the needs of today’s world.
 
Members of the U.N. Security Council, including the United States, should consistently uphold and defend the U.N. Charter and refrain — refrain from the use of the veto, except in rare, extraordinary situations, to ensure that the Council remains credible and effective.
 
That is also why the United States supports increasing the number of both permanent and non-permanent representatives of the Council.  This includes permanent seats for those nations we’ve long supported and permanent seats for countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
 
The United States is committed to this vital work.  In every region, we pursued new, constructive ways to work with partners to advance shared interests, from elevating the Quad in the Indo-Pacific; to signing the Los Angeles Declaration of Migration and Protection at the Summit of the Americas; to joining a historic meeting of nine Arab leaders to work toward a more peaceful, integrated Middle East; to hosting the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit in — this December.
 
Relentless Diplomacy to Tackle Challenges

As I said last year, the United States is opening an era of relentless diplomacy to address the challenges that matter most to people’s lives — all people’s lives: tackling the climate crisis, as the previous speaker spoke to; strengthening global health security; feeding the world — feeding the world.
 
We made that priority.  And one year later, we’re keeping that promise.
 
From the day I came to office, we’ve led with a bold climate agenda.  We rejoined the Paris Agreement, convened major climate summits, helped deliver critical agreements on COP26.  And we helped get two thirds of the world GDP on track to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. 
 
And now I’ve signed a historic piece of legislation here in the United States that includes the biggest, most important climate commitment we have ever made in the history of our country: $369 billion toward climate change.  That includes tens of billions in new investments in offshore wind and solar, doubling down on zero emission vehicles, increasing energy efficiency, supporting clean manufacturing.
 
Our Department of Energy estimates that this new law will reduce U.S. emissions by one gigaton a year by 2030 while unleashing a new era of clean-energy-powered economic growth.
 
Our investments will also help reduce the cost of developing clean energy technologies worldwide, not just the United States.  This is a global gamechanger — and none too soon.  We don’t have much time.
 
Climate Crisis

We all know we’re already living in a climate crisis.  No one seems to doubt it after this past year.  As we meet, much of Pakistan is still underwater; it needs help.  Meanwhile, the Horn of Africa faces unprecedented drought. 
 
Families are facing impossible choices, choosing which child to feed and wondering whether they’ll survive.
 
This is the human cost of climate change.  And it’s growing, not lessening.
 
So, as I announced last year, to meet our global responsibility, my administration is working with our Congress to deliver more than $11 billion a year to international climate finance to help lower-income countries implement their climate goals and ensure a just energy transition.
 
The key part of that will be our [PREPARE] plan, which will help half a billion people, and especially vulnerable countries, adapt to the impacts of climate change and build resilience.
 
This need is enormous.  So let this be the moment we find within ourselves the will to turn back the tide of climate devastation and unlock a resilient, sustainable, clean energy economy to preserve our planet.
 
Global Health

On global health, we’ve delivered more than 620 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 116 countries around the world, with more available to help meet countries’ needs — all free of charge, no strings attached.
 
And we’re working closely with the G20 and other countries.  And the United States helped lead the change to establish a groundbreaking new Fund for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response at the World Bank.
 
At the same time, we’ve continued to advance the ball on enduring global health challenges.
 
Later today, I’ll host the Seventh Replenishment Conference for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.  With bipartisan support in our Congress, I have pledged to contribute up to $6 billion to that effort.
 
So I look forward to welcoming a historic round of pledges at the conference resulting in one of the largest global health fundraisers ever held in all of history.
 
Food Crisis

We’re also taking on the food crisis head on.  With as many as 193 million people around the world experiencing acute — acute food insecurity — a jump of 40 million in a year — today I’m announcing another $2.9 billion in U.S. support for lifesaving humanitarian and food security assistance for this year alone.
 
Russia, in the meantime, is pumping out lies, trying to pin the blame for the crisis — the food crisis — onto sanctions imposed by many in the world for the aggression against Ukraine. 
 
So let me be perfectly clear about something: Our sanctions explicitly allow — explicitly allow Russia the ability to export food and fertilizer.  No limitation.  It’s Russia’s war that is worsening food insecurity, and only Russia can end it.
 
I’m grateful for the work here at the U.N. — including your leadership, Mr. Secretary-General — establishing a mechanism to export grain from Black Sea ports in Ukraine that Russia had blocked for months, and we need to make sure it’s extended.
 
We believe strongly in the need to feed the world.  That’s why the United States is the world’s largest supporter of the World Food Programme, with more than 40 percent of its budget.
 
We’re leading support — we’re leading support of the UNICEF efforts to feed children around the world. 
 
And to take on the larger challenge of food insecurity, the United States introduced a Call to Action: a roadmap eliminating global food insecurity — to eliminating global food insecurity that more than 100 nation member states have already supported.
 
In June, the G7 announced more than $4.5 billion to strengthen food security around the world.
 
Through USAID’s Feed the Future initiative, the United States is scaling up innovative ways to get drought- and heat-resistant seeds into the hands of farmers who need them, while distributing fertilizer and improving fertilizer efficiency so that farmers can grow more while using less.
 
And we’re calling on all countries to refrain from banning food exports or hoarding grain while so many people are suffering.  Because in every country in the world, no matter what else divides us, if parents cannot feed their children, nothing — nothing else matters if parents cannot feed their children.
 
Rules of the Road for International Cooperation

As we look to the future, we’re working with our partners to update and create rules of the road for new challenges we face in the 21st century.
 
We launched the Trade and Technology Council with the European Union to ensure that key technologies — key technologies are developed and governed in the way that benefits everyone. 
 
With our partner countries and through the U.N., we’re supporting and strengthening the norms of responsibility — responsible state behavior in cyberspace and working to hold accountable those who use cyberattacks to threaten international peace and security. 
 
With partners in the Americas, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific, we’re working to build a new economic ecosystem while — where every nation — every nation gets a fair shot and economic growth is resilient, sustainable, and shared. 
 
That’s why the United States has championed a global minimum tax.  And we will work to see it implemented so major corporations pay their fair share everywhere — everywhere.
 
It’s also been the idea behind the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which the United States launched this year with 13 other Indo-Pacific economies.  We’re working with our partners in ASEAN and the Pacific Islands to support a vision for a critical Indo-Pacific region that is free and open, connected and prosperous, secure and resilient.
 
Together with partners around the world, we’re working to secure resilient supply chains that protect everyone from coercion or domination and ensure that no country can use energy as a weapon.
 
And as Russia’s war riles the global economy, we’re also calling on major global creditors, including the non-Paris Club countries, to transparently negotiate debt forgiveness for lower-income countries to forestall broader economic and political crises around the world. 
 
Instead of infrastructure projects that generate huge and large debt without delivering on the promised advantages, let’s meet the enormous infrastructure needs around the world with transparent investments — high-standard projects that protect the rights of workers and the environment — keyed to the needs of the communities they serve, not to the contributor.
 
That’s why the United States, together with fellow G7 partners, launched a Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.  We intend to collectively mobilize $600 billion
in investment through this partnership by 2027. 
 
Dozens of projects are already underway: industrial-scale vaccine manufacturing in Senegal, transformative solar projects in Angola, first-of-its-kind small modular nuclear power plant in Romania.
 
These are investments that are going to deliver returns not just for those countries, but for everyone.  The United States will work with every nation, including our competitors, to solve global problems like climate change.  Climate diplomacy is not a favor to the United States or any other nation, and walking away hurts the entire world.
 
Relations with China, Nations

Let me be direct about the competition between the United States and China.  As we manage shifting geopolitical trends, the United States will conduct itself as a reasonable leader.  We do not seek conflict.  We do not seek a Cold War.  We do not ask any nation to choose between the United States or any other partner. 
 
But the United States will be unabashed in promoting our vision of a free, open, secure, and prosperous world and what we have to offer communities of nations: investments that are designed not to foster dependency, but to alleviate burdens and help nations become self-sufficient; partnerships not to create political obligation, but because we know our own success — each of our success is increased when other nations succeed as well.
 
When individuals have the chance to live in dignity and develop their talents, everyone benefits.  Critical to that is living up to the highest goals of this institution: increasing peace and security for everyone, everywhere. 
 
The United States will not waver in our unrelenting determination to counter and thwart the continuing terrorist threats to our world.  And we will lead with our diplomacy to strive for peaceful resolution of conflicts. 
 
We seek to uphold peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits. 
 
We remain committed to our One China policy, which has helped prevent conflict for four decades.  And we continue to oppose unilateral changes in the status quo by either side. 
 
We support an African Union-led peace process to end the fight in Ethiopia and restore security for all its people. 
 
In Venezuela, where years of the political oppression have driven more than 6 million people from that country, we urge a Venezuelan-led dialogue and a return to free and fair elections.
 
We continue to stand with our neighbor in Haiti as it faces political-fueled gang violence and an enormous human crisis.
 
And we call on the world to do the same.  We have more to do. 
 
We’ll continue to back the U.N.-mediated truce in Yemen, which has delivered precious months of peace to people that have suffered years of war.
 
And we will continue to advocate for lasting negotiating peace between the Jewish and democratic state of Israel and the Palestinian people.  The United States is committed to Israel’s security, full stop.  And a negotiated two-state solution remains, in our view, the best way to ensure Israel’s security and prosperity for the future and give the Palestinians the state which — to which they are entitled — both sides to fully respect the equal rights of their citizens; both people enjoying equal measure of freedom and dignity.
 
Nuclear Non-Proliferation

Let me also urge every nation to recommit to strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime through diplomacy.  No matter what else is happening in the world, the United States is ready to pursue critical arms control measures.  A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. 
 
The five permanent members of the Security Council just reaffirmed that commitment in January.  But today, we’re seeing disturbing trends.  Russia shunned the Non-Proliferation ideals embraced by every other nation at the 10th NPT Review Conference. 
 
And again, today, as I said, they’re making irresponsible nuclear threats to use nuclear weapons.  China is conducting an unprecedented, concerning nuclear buildup without any transparency. 
 
Despite our efforts to begin serious and sustained diplomacy, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea continues to blatantly violate U.N. sanctions.
 
And while the United States is prepared for a mutual return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action if Iran steps up to its obligations, the United States is clear: We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.
 
I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome.  The nonproliferation regime is one of the greatest successes of this institution.  We cannot let the world now slide backwards, nor can we turn a blind eye to the erosion of human rights.
 
Human Rights

Perhaps singular among this body’s achievements stands the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is the standard by which our forebears challenged us to measure ourselves.
 
They made clear in 1948: Human rights are the basis for all that we seek to achieve.  And yet today, in 2022, fundamental freedoms are at risk in every part of our world, from the violations in Xinjiang detailed in recent reports by the Office of U.N. High Commissioner, to the horrible abuses against pro-democracy activists and ethnic minorities by the military regime in Burma, to the increased repression of women and girls by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

And today, we stand with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights.
 
But here’s what I know: The future will be won by those countries that unleash the full potential of their populations, where women and girls can exercise equal rights, including basic reproductive rights, and contribute fully to building a stronger economies and more resilient societies; where religious and ethnic minorities can live their lives without harassment and contribute to the fabric of their communities; where the LGBTQ+ community individuals live and love freely without being targeted with violence; where citizens can question and criticize their leaders without fear of reprisal.
 
The United States will always promote human rights and the values enshrined in the U.N. Charter in our own country and around the world.
 
Let me end with this: This institution, guided by the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is at its core an act of dauntless hope.

Let me say that again: It’s an act of dauntless hope.
 
Think about the vision of those first delegates who undertook a seemingly impossible task while the world was still smoldering.
 
Think about how divided the people of the world must have felt with the fresh grief of millions dead, the genocidal horrors of the Holocaust exposed.
 
They had every right to believe only the worst of humanity.  Instead, they reached for what was best in all of us, and they strove to build something better: enduring peace; comity among nations; equal rights for every member of the human family; cooperation for the advancement of all humankind.
 
My fellow leaders, the challenges we face today are great indeed, but our capacity is greater.  Our commitment must be greater still.

So let’s stand together to again declare the unmistakable resolve that nations of the world are united still, that we stand for the values of the U.N. Charter, that we still believe by working together we can bend the arc of history toward a freer and more just world for all our children, although none of us have fully achieved it.

We’re not passive witnesses to history; we are the authors of history.
 
We can do this — we have to do it — for ourselves and for our future, for humankind.

Thank you for your tolerance, for listening to me.  I appreciate it very much.  God bless you all.  (Applause.)

11:37 A.M. EDT

Biden Administration, Climate Action, Democrats, Economic Development, Economic Policies, Economy, News & Photo Features

STATE FACT SHEETS:
How the Inflation Reduction Act Lowers Energy Costs, Creates Jobs, and Tackles Climate Change Across America

The White House released state fact sheets highlighting how the Inflation Reduction Act tackles the climate crisis in states across the country and how families and communities can benefit from a clean energy future, like providing tax credits covering 30% of the costs to install solar panels and battery storage systems, make home improvements that reduce energy leakage, or upgrade heating and cooling equipment © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Today, the White House released state fact sheets highlighting how the Inflation Reduction Act tackles the climate crisis in states across the country and how families and communities can benefit from a clean energy future. The fact sheet outlines how families can save on their utility bills, get tax credits for electric vehicles and energy-saving appliances, and access the economic opportunities of the clean energy future.
 
President Biden and Congressional Democrats beat back special interests to pass this historic legislation, delivering the most significant action in U.S. history to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen U.S. energy security. By signing the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden is delivering on his promise to lower energy costs, create good-paying jobs, and deliver a clean, secure, and healthy future for families across America.
 
Fact Sheets by State:

Biden Administration, Climate Action, Democrats, Economic Development, Economic Policies, Economy, Health Care, Joe Biden, News & Photo Features

Biden Signs Historic Inflation Reduction Act:  ‘It’s about tomorrow. It’s about delivering progress and prosperity to American families’

Here is an edited, highlighted transcript of President Joe Biden’s remarks as he signed the Inflation Reduction Act, with historic investments in climate action, long-fought improvements in health care and prescription drug affordability, tax reform and deficit reduction, and in the immortal words of Biden as Obama’s VP, a “BFD.” –Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

President Joe Biden signs the historic, transformative Inflation Reduction Act, saying “It’s about tomorrow. It’s about delivering progress and prosperity to American families.” The act makes historic investments in climate action, long-fought improvements in health care and prescription drug affordability, tax reform and deficit reduction, and in the immortal words of Biden as Obama’s VP, a “BFD.” (via C-Span)

I’m about to sign the Inflation Reduction Act into law, one of the most significant laws in our history.  Let me say from the start: With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost.  The American people won and the special interests lost. 

For a while, people doubted whether any of that was going to happen. But we are in a season of substance.  This administration began amid a dark time in America — as Jim said, “a once-in-a-century pandemic” — devastating joblessness, clear and present threats to democracy and the rule of law, doubts about America’s future itself.  

And yet, we’ve not wavered.  We’ve not flinched.  And we’ve not given in.  Instead, we’re delivering results for the American people.  We didn’t tear down; we built up.  We didn’t look back; we looked forward.

And today — today offers further proof that the soul of America is vibrant, the future of America is bright, and the promise of America is real and just beginning.  (Applause.) 

Look, the bill I’m about to sign is not just about today, it’s about tomorrow.  It’s about delivering progress and prosperity to American families.

It’s about showing the American and the American people that democracy still works in America — notwithstanding all the — all the talk of its demise — not just for the privileged few, but for all of us.

You know, I swore an oath of office to you and to God to faithfully execute the duties of this sacred office.

To me, the critical duty — the critical duty of the presidency is to defend what is best about America.  And that’s not hyperbole.  Defend what’s best about America.  To pursue justice, to ensure fairness, and to deliver results that create possibilities — possibilities that all of us — all of us can live a life of consequence and prosperity in a nation that’s safe and secure.  That’s the job.  

Fulfilling that pledge to you guides me every single hour of every single day in this job.  

You know, presidents should be judged not only by our words, but by our deeds; not by our rhetoric, but by our actions; not by our promise, but by reality.  

And today is part of an extraordinary story that’s being written by this administration and our brave allies in the Congress.

This law — this law that I’m about to sign finally delivers on a promise that Washington has made for decades to the American people.  

I got here as a 29-year-old kid.  We were promising to make sure that Medicare would have the power to negotiate lower drug prices back then — back then — prescription drug prices.  

But guess what?  We’re giving Medicare the power to negotiate those prices now, on some drugs.

This means seniors are going to pay less for their prescription drugs while we’re changing circumstances for people on Medicare by putting a cap — a cap of a maximum of $2,000 a year on their prescription drug costs, no matter what the reason for those prescriptions are.

That means if you’re on Medicare, you’ll never have to pay more than $2,000 a year no matter how many prescriptions you have, whether it’s for cancer or any other disease.  No more than $2,000 a year.

And you all know it because a lot of you come from families that need this.  This is a Godsend.  This is a Godsend to many families and so, so long overdue. 


The Inflation Reduction Act locks in place lower healthcare premiums for millions of families who get their coverage under the Affordable Care Act.  

Last year, a family of four saved on average $2,400 through the American Rescue Plan that I signed into law that Congress voted in place.

In the years ahead, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, 13 million people are going to continue — continue to save an average of $800 a year on health insurance.

The Inflation Reduction Act invests $369 billion to take the most aggressive action ever — ever, ever, ever — in confronting the climate crisis and strengthening our economic — our energy security.

It’s going to offer working families thousands of dollars in savings by providing them rebates to buy new and efficient appliances, weatherize their homes, get tax credit for purchasing heat pumps and rooftop solar, electric stoves, ovens, dryers.
 
It gives consumers a tax credit to buy electric vehicles or fuel cell vehicles, new or used.  And it gives them a credit — a tax credit of up to $7,500 if those vehicles were made in America. 

American auto companies, along with American labor, are committing their treasure and their talent — billions of dollars in investment — to make electric vehicles and battery and electric charging stations all across America, made in America.  All of it made in America.

This new law also provides tax credits that’s going to create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs and clean energy manufacturing jobs, solar factories in the Midwest and the South, wind farms across the plains and off our shores, clean hydrogen projects and more — all across America, every part of America.

This bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever — ever — and it’s going to allow us to boldly take additional steps toward meeting all of my climate goals — the ones we set out when we ran.

It includes ensuring that we create clean energy opportunities in frontline and fence-line communities that have been smothered — smothered by the legacy of pollution, and fight environmental injustice that’s been going on for so long.

And here’s another win for the American people: In addition to cutting the deficit by $350 billion last year, in my first year in office, and cutting it $1.7 trillion this year, this fiscal year, we’re going to cut the deficit — I point out — by another $300 billion with the Inflation Reduction Act over the next decade.

We’re cutting deficit to fight inflation by having the wealthy and big corporations finally begin to pay part of their fair share.

Big corporations will now pay a minimum 15 percent tax instead of 55 of them got away with paying zero dollars in federal income tax on $40 billion in profit. 

And I’m keeping my campaign commitment: No one — let me emphasize — no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a penny more in federal taxes.  (Applause.) 

Folks, the Inflation Reduction Act does so many things that, for so many years, so many of us have fought to make happen.

And let’s be clear: In this historic moment, Democrats sided with the American people, and every single Republican in the Congress sided with the special interests in this vote — every single one.

In fact, the big drug companies spent nearly $100 million to defeat this bill.  A hundred million dollars.

And remember: Every single Republican in Congress voted against this bill. 

Every single Republican in Congress voted against lowering prescription drug prices, against lowering healthcare costs, against a fairer tax system.

Every single Republican — every single one — voted against tackling the climate crisis, against lowering our energy costs, against creating good-paying jobs.

My fellow Americans, that’s the choice we face: We can protect the already-powerful or show the courage to build a future where everybody has an even shot.

That’s the America I believe in.  (Applause.)  That’s what I believe in. 

And today — and today, we’ve come a step closer to making that America real.

Today, too often we confuse noise with substance.  Too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.  Too often we hand the biggest microphone to the critics and the cynics who delight in declaring failure while those committed to making real progress do the hard work of governing.

Making progress in this country as big and complicated as ours clearly is not easy.  It’s never been easy.

But with unwavering conviction, commitment, and patience, progress does come…

And when it does, like today, people’s lives are made better and the future becomes brighter, and a nation can be transformed.

That’s what’s happening now.  From the American Rescue Plan that helped create nearly 10 million new jobs, to a once-in-a-generation infrastructure law that will rebuild America’s roads, bridges, ports; deliver clean water, high-speed Internet to every American; to the first meaningful gun safety law in 30 years — and if I have anything to do with it, we’re still going to have an assault weapons ban, but that’s another story.  And to get significant veterans’ healthcare law in decades, for the first time; to a groundbreaking CHIPS and Science Law that’s going to ensure that technologies and jobs of the future are made here in America — in America.

(Applause.) 

And all this progress is part of our vision and plan and determined effort to get the job done for the American people, so they can look their child in the eye and say, “Honey, it’s going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay.”

Everything is going to make sure that democracy delivers for your generation.  Because I think that’s at stake.

And, now, I know there are those here today who hold a dark and despairing view of this country.  I’m not one of them.

I believe in the promise of America.  I believe in the future of this country.  I believe in the very soul of this nation.  And most of all, I believe in you, the American people.

I believe to my core there isn’t a single thing this country cannot do when we put our mind to it.  We just have to remember who we are.  We are the United States of America.

There is nothing nothing beyond our capacity. That’s why so many foreign companies decided to invest their — make chips in America. Billions of dollars.  We’re the best.  We have to believe in ourselves again.

And now I’m going to take action that I’ve been looking forward to doing for 18 months.  (Laughter and applause.)  I’m going to sign the Inflation Reduction Law.  (Applause.)

Okay.  Here you go. (The bill is signed.)

LEADER SCHUMER:  It’s now law.

(Applause.)

Biden Administration, Climate Action, Economic Policies, Economy, Health Care, News & Photo Features

The Inflation Reduction Act by the Numbers: What it Means to You

As part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s effort to transition the economy to clean, renewable energy, families that take advantage of clean energy and electric vehicle tax credits will save more than $1,000 per year. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

President Joe Biden will sign the Inflation Reduction Act today, a distillation of what Americans have been clamoring for, for the past 30 years. It includes the most significant investment in climate action, plus health care and tax reform while also amazingly reducing the deficit. Here’s what the Inflation Reduction Act will mean to you, by the numbers. This is from the White House:

The Inflation Reduction Act will lower costs for families, combat the climate crisis, reduce the deficit, and finally ask the largest corporations to pay their fair share. President Biden and Congressional Democrats have worked together to deliver a historic legislative achievement that defeats special interests, delivers for American families, and grows the economy from the bottom up and middle out.
 
Here’s how the Inflation Reduction Act impacts Americans by the numbers:
 
HEALTH CARE
 
Cutting Prescription Drug Costs

  • Today, Americans pay two to three times what citizens of other countries pay for prescription drugs
  • 5-7 million Medicare beneficiaries could see their prescription drug costs go down because of the provision allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug costs.
  • 50 million Americans with Medicare Part D will have the peace of mind knowing their costs at the pharmacy are capped at $2,000 per year, directly benefiting about 1.4 million beneficiaries each year.
  • 3.3 million Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes will benefit from a guarantee that their insulin costs are capped at $35 for a month’s supply.

 
Lowering Health Care Costs

  • 13 million Americans will continue to save an average of $800 per year on health insurance premiums
  • 3 million more Americans will have health insurance than without the law.
  • The uninsured rate is at an all-time low of 8%, which the historic law will build on.

 
Defeating Special Interests

  • $187 million: The amount the Pharmaceutical industry has spent on lobbying in 2022.
  • 1,600: number of lobbyists the pharmaceutical companies had in 2021 – three times the number of Members of Congress
  • 33 years: the amount of time Congressional Democrats have been trying to lower prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
  • 19 years: number of years Medicare has been blocked from negotiating prescription drug costs

 
CLEAN ENERGY
 
Lowering Energy Costs

  • Families that take advantage of clean energy and electric vehicle tax credits will save more than $1,000 per year.
  • $14,000 in direct consumer rebates for families to buy heat pumps or other energy efficient home appliances, saving families at least $350 per year.
  • 7.5 million more families will be able install solar on their roofs with a 30% tax credit, saving families $9,000 over the life of the system or at least $300 per year.
  • Up to $7,500 in tax credits for new electric vehicles and $4,000 for used electric vehicles, helping families save $950 per year.
  • Putting America on track to meet President Biden’s climate goals, which will save every family an average of $500 per year on their energy costs.

 
Building a Clean Energy Economy

  • Power homes, businesses, and communities with much more clean energy by 2030, including:
    • 950 million solar panels
    • 120,000 wind turbines
    • 2,300 grid-scale battery plants
  • Advance cost-saving clean energy projects at rural electric cooperatives serving 42 million people.
  • Strengthen climate resilience and protect nearly 2 million acres of national forests.
  • Creating millions of good-paying jobs making clean energy in America.

 
Reducing Harmful Pollution

  • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 1 gigaton in 2030, or a billion metric tons – 10 times more climate impact than any other single piece of legislation ever enacted.
  • Deploy clean energy and reduce particle pollution from fossil fuels to avoid up to 3,900 premature deaths and up to 100,000 asthma attacks annually by 2030.

 
TAXES
 
Making the Tax Code Fairer

  • $0: how much some of largest, profitable corporations pay in federal income tax.
  • 55: the number of America’s largest, wealthiest corporations that got away without paying a cent in federal income taxes in 2020.
  • $160 billon: how much the top 1 percent of earners is estimated to evade each year in taxes.
  • 15%: the minimum tax on corporate profits the Inflation Reduction Act imposes on the largest, most profitable corporations.
  • $124 billion: savings over 10 years the Inflation Reduction Act will generate from collecting taxes already owed by wealthy people and large corporations, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
  • And no family making less than $400,000 will see their taxes go up a penny.

 
Reducing the Deficit

  • The Inflation Act will achieve hundreds of billions in deficit reduction.
  • The deficit is projected to fall by more than $1.5 trillion this year after falling by more than $350 billion last year.
  • 126 leading economists – including 7 Nobel Laureates, 2 former Treasury Secretaries, 2 former Fed Vice Chairs and 2 former CEA Chairs – have said reducing the deficit will help fight inflation and support strong, stable economic growth.
Biden Administration, Climate Change

FACT SHEET: President Biden’s Executive Actions on Climate to Address Extreme Heat and Boost Offshore Wind

Standing at the site of a former coal-fired power plant in Brayton Point, Massachusetts that is being repurposed as a cable manufacturing facility to support the flourishing offshore wind industry, President Biden reiterated his long-held position that climate change is a clear and present danger to the United States and announced a series of executive actions to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity to create good-paying jobs in clean energy and lower costs for families. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Standing at the site of a former coal-fired power plant in Brayton Point, Massachusetts that is being repurposed as a cable manufacturing facility to support the flourishing offshore wind industry, President Biden reiterated his long-held position that climate change is a clear and present danger to the United States. Since Congress is not acting on this emergency, President Biden is. In the coming weeks, President Biden will announce additional executive actions to combat this emergency. 
 
Biden announced his latest set of executive actions to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity, by creating good-paying jobs in clean energy and lowering costs for families. His actions will protect communities from climate impacts already here, including extreme heat conditions impacting more than 100 million Americans this week, and expand offshore wind opportunities and jobs in the United States.
 
The transformation of the coal-fired power plant to instead manufacture cable to transmit energy generated by offshore wind is representative of how the President’s leadership is accelerating the nation’s transition away from the pollution, environmental injustice, and volatile price swings of the past toward the good-paying jobs and energy security of the future.

President Biden’s new executive actions will:

  • Protect Communities from Extreme Heat and Dangerous Climate Impacts: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is announcing $2.3 billion in funding for its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program for Fiscal Year 2022— the largest BRIC investment in history, boosted by the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This funding will help communities increase resilience to heat waves, drought, wildfires, flood, hurricanes, and other hazards by preparing before disaster strikes. BRIC is among hundreds of federal programs that the Biden-Harris Administration is transforming to support the Justice40 Initiative and prioritize delivering benefits to disadvantaged communities.
     
  • Lower Cooling Costs for Communities Suffering from Extreme Heat: Today, the Department of Health and Human Services is issuing guidance that for the first time expands how the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) can promote the delivery of efficient air conditioning equipment, community cooling centers, and more. In April, the Biden-Harris Administration released $385 million through LIHEAP to help families with their household energy costs, including summer cooling—part of a record $8 billion that the Administration has provided, boosted by the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. 
  • Expand Offshore Wind Opportunities and Jobs: The Department of the Interior is proposing the first Wind Energy Areas in the Gulf of Mexico, a historic step toward expanding offshore wind opportunities to another region of the United States. These areas cover 700,000 acres and have the potential to power over three million homes. President Biden is also directing the Secretary of the Interior to advance wind energy development in the waters off the mid- and southern Atlantic Coast and Florida’s Gulf Coast —alleviating uncertainty cast by the prior Administration. These actions follow the President’s launch of a new Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership that brought together Governors to deliver more clean, affordable energy and new jobs. 

Millions of Americans feel the effects of climate change each year when their roads wash out, power goes down, homes are destroyed by wildfires, or schools get flooded. Last year alone, the United States faced 20 extreme weather and climate related disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each – a cumulative price tag of more than $145 billion. People of color and underserved communities are disproportionately vulnerable to the climate crisis and are more likely to experience the negative health and environmental effects of climate-related and extreme weather events. Further, the country’s critical infrastructure is at risk from climate and extreme weather.
 
President Biden will not back down from addressing this emergency. Since taking office, he has mobilized his entire Administration to tackle the climate crisis and secured historic clean energy and climate resilience investments in his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He will continue taking bold action to secure a safe, healthy, clean energy future—all while saving families money, delivering clean air and water, advancing environmental justice, and boosting American manufacturing and competitiveness.
 
PROTECTING COMMUNITIES FROM EXTREME HEAT
 
This summer, millions of Americans are navigating the challenges and dangers that come with extreme heat advisories and record-breaking temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The climate crisis is making heat waves more intense and frequent, taking a toll on health across the country—sending tens of thousands of Americans to the emergency room, increasing risks of heart and respiratory problems, and especially endangering our workers, children, seniors, historically underserved and overburdened communities, and people with underlying health conditions.
 
To respond, last year the Biden-Harris Administration launched a broad set of new initiatives to  advance workplace safety, build local resilience, and address the disproportionate impacts of extreme heat. Today, the Administration is announcing additional steps and progress on:
 

  • Providing Record Funding to Increase Community Resilience: Last year, President Biden doubled the funding available through FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. This year, he is doubling it again, to a historic level of $2.3 billion available for states, local communities, Tribes, and territories to proactively reduce their vulnerability to heat waves, drought, wildfires, flood, hurricanes, and other hazards boosted by the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. As part of the President’s Justice40 Initiative, which set a goal of delivering 40% of the overall benefits of Federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities, FEMA is prioritizing communities that have long been marginalized, overburdened, and underserved. 
  • Expanding Access to Home Air Conditioners and Community Cooling Centers: In April, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released $385 million through LIHEAP to help families with their household energy costs, including summer cooling—part of a record $8 billion that the Administration has provided, boosted by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to reduce cooling and heating costs for low-income Americans. Today, HHS is issuing guidance that will help states, Tribes, and territories expand how they respond to extreme heat and support vulnerable communities through LIHEAP. The guidance provides for a range of flexible options including increasing funding for cooling assistance through the American Rescue Plan; establishing community cooling centers; and purchasing, distributing, or loaning efficient air conditioning equipment, evaporative coolers and electric heat pumps—a more energy-efficient alternative for providing cooling services—to vulnerable households and individuals. HHS has also developed a LIHEAP and Extreme Heat website to provide online resources including the Heat Stress Geographic Information (GIS) Dashboard to help grant recipients and stakeholders track, visualize, and respond to heat stress trends and needs across the country. 
  • Enforcing Workplace Safety: Heat is a growing threat to workplace safety, especially in high-risk sectors like agriculture and construction. In April, Vice President Harris and Secretary of Labor Walsh launched the first-ever National Emphasis Program to protect millions of workers from heat illness and injuries. Since then, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has already conducted 564 heat-related inspections, which are focused on over 70 high-risk industries across 43 states. On days when the heat index is 80°F or higher, OSHA inspectors and compliance assistance specialists are engaging in proactive outreach and technical assistance to help stakeholders keep workers safe on the job.
     

Through the Extreme Heat Interagency Working Group under the National Climate Task Force, the Administration is advancing a wide range of additional efforts, including a historic OSHA rulemaking process toward the first federal heat standard to protect workers, EPA support for community communication strategies to help people keep safe on the hottest days, a DHS Cooling Solutions Challenge to fund innovative extreme heat responses,  NOAA’s community-led urban heat island mapping campaign, a USDA urban and community forestry program to equitably improve heat resilience, and a new HHS Climate and Health Outlook to inform health professionals about extreme heat and other climate-related health hazards. 
 
BOOSTING THE OFFSHORE WIND INDUSTRY AND CREATING JOBS
 
Since President Biden set a bold goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, the Administration has approved the first large-scale projects and new wind energy areas, held record-breaking wind auctions, and issued an action plan to accelerate permitting. The private sector is following suit with investments to expand an American-made wind energy supply chain. In 2021 alone, investors announced $2.2 billion in new supply chain funding, including commitments to develop nine major manufacturing facilities to produce the foundations, towers, cables, and blades of offshore wind turbines. Historic project labor agreements are helping to grow a diverse union workforce, create good-paying jobs, and support training programs.
 
To further expand these opportunities, today President Biden is: 

  • Kickstarting Potential for Offshore Wind in Gulf of Mexico: Today, the Department of the Interior is announcing draft Wind Energy Areas and an accompanying draft Environmental Assessment to consider potential offshore wind power in the Gulf of Mexico. The Administration will seek public input on two potential Wind Energy Areas—one off the coast of Galveston, Texas and another off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana. The area for review covers over 700,000 acres, with the potential to power over three million homes with clean energy. As with prior proposals, the Administration is committed to working in partnership with stakeholders to advance offshore wind development while protecting biodiversity and promoting ocean co-use.
     
  • Promoting Offshore Wind Opportunities in the Southeast: The prior Administration cast uncertainty over the future of offshore wind and other clean energy development off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Today, President Biden is directing the Secretary of the Interior to advance clean energy development in these federal waters—ensuring that these southeast states will be able to benefit from good-paying jobs in the burgeoning offshore wind industry.

 
These actions follow the President’s announcement last month of a new Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership, joining with Governors to ensure that federal and state officials are working together to build a U.S.-based supply chain, including manufacturing and shipbuilding, for the rapidly-growing offshore wind industry. 

Biden Administration, Climate Action, Climate Change

FACT SHEET: 10 Ways the Biden Administration Is Making America Resilient to Climate Change

Destructive wildfires have become commonplace in drought-plagued California and the West. The Biden Administration is investing $1 billion for 53 states, territories, and D.C., to improve their infrastructure and make communities more resilient, with an emphasis on increasing resilience to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

We know that the impacts of the climate crisis are here and that we must invest in building resilience to protect our communities, infrastructure, and economy. That is why Vice President Kamala Harris went to Miami, Florida to announce over $1 billion for 53 states, territories, and D.C., to improve their infrastructure and make communities more resilient, with an emphasis on increasing resilience to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. These awards, which will be distributed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Program, are double the funding from last year’s historic $500 million. Next year, this funding will more than double to $2.3 billion, boosted by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
 
The announcement is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s broad efforts to strengthen our nation’s resilience and tackle the climate crisis. President Biden’s National Climate Task Force has launched interagency efforts to build resilience to climate impacts, including extreme heat, wildfires, drought, flooding, coastal threats, financial risks, and more. This builds on the historic investments President Biden and Vice President Harris secured in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for clean energy, wildfire mitigation, legacy pollution cleanup, ecosystem restoration, and resilient infrastructure. These investments create jobs building a clean energy economy that’s resilient to climate change and revitalizing our domestic manufacturing base. 

The President and Vice President’s key actions include: 

  1. Providing historic investments for climate resilient infrastructure projects: Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, President Biden secured $50 billion in resilience investments, the most in American history, to protect communities against extreme weather. For example, the Department of Transportation recently announced $7.3 billion in formula funding through the PROTECT program, which will help states and communities make transportation infrastructure more resilient by focusing on resilience planning, making resilience improvements to existing transportation assets and evacuation routes, and addressing at-risk highway infrastructure.
     
  2. Combating growing wildfire threats: Agencies are undertaking various actions, such as the joint planning and coordination of historic investments in conservation programs and natural resource infrastructure projects across the West, including the new Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These investments improve wildfire response and reduce the overall loss of infrastructure and critical resources, while prioritizing assistance to underserved communities. This summer, as directed by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission was established, gathering Federal and non-Federal members to formulate and deliver policy recommendations to Congress for wildland fire prevention, mitigation, suppression, and management.
     
  3. Protecting communities and workers from extreme heat: The Biden-Harris Administration is taking a wide range of actions to respond to intensifying heat waves and reduce associated health risks, especially for vulnerable groups and underserved communities. These efforts include using the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to reduce cooling costs and deliver air conditioners and electric heat pumps to homes, developing nationwide standards and enforcement programs to protect workers on the job, launching Heat.gov as a one-stop hub for accessible information and response tools, and supporting community-led urban heat island mapping, outreach and communication strategies, innovative cooling technologies, urban tree and greening projects, and more.
     
  4. Strengthening drought resilience: In June, Vice President Harris highlighted the Drought Resilience Interagency Working Group First Year Summary Report, which details the efforts accomplished and underway to assist drought-stricken communities and build their resilience to worsening conditions. A new Federal-state task force was launched in partnership with Western governors to coordinate conservation programs. Many agencies – in collaboration with states, Tribes, and local governments, as well as non-governmental organizations – are utilizing Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to support projects that improve our Nation’s water infrastructure, rehabilitate watersheds, promote water reuse, and enhance soil and drought monitoring systems.
     
  5. Reducing flood risk for households and communities: President Biden re-established the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard that will reduce flood risk and protect infrastructure investments. The White House is coordinating Federal efforts on flood resilience and ensuring that federal investments include safety standards for flooding and sea-level rise. Agencies are already taking action by implementing guidance to ensure communities are protected from floods. In addition, FEMA launched an updated website for purchasers to evaluate property-level flood risk and released a report highlighting best-practices for states requiring flood risk disclosures during real estate transactions.
     
  6. Protecting coastal communities from storms, sea-level rise, and other climate impacts: The Biden-Harris Administration announced $3 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds to strengthen coastal resilience, improve climate data and services, and more. As directed in President Biden’s Earth Day Executive Order, the Administration is exploring greater deployment of nature-based solutions to address coastal and other climate impacts. Through the Coastal Resilience Interagency Working Group, agencies have developed a resource guide to help communities build climate resilience along coastlines with nature-based solutions—streamlining access to more than 100 information resources and 48 federal programs.
     
  7. Supporting disadvantaged communities: Through the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC), the White House formed a new WHEJAC Climate Resilience Working Group to advise on how to promote and execute equitable climate change resilience and disaster management. The White House continues to coordinate with agencies to implement the President’s Justice40 Program, ensuring that 40% of program benefits reach disadvantaged communities. This includes benefits offered through the FEMA BRIC program. 
  8. Prioritizing assistance to Tribal communities: Tribal communities and lands face particular risks to climate effects. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests $216 million in funding to establish a new Tribal transition and relocation assistance program under DOI, which supports the voluntary, community-led transition for Tribal communities severely threatened by climate change and accelerating coastal hazards. The White House launched a new Community-Driven Relocation Subcommittee, which will convene agencies to explore key considerations, issues, and strategies for working in partnership with communities to support voluntary movement away from high-risk regions.
  1. Addressing climate risks to the economy: The Biden-Harris Administration launched the first comprehensive, government-wide strategy to measure, disclose, manage, and mitigate the systemic risks that climate change poses to American families, businesses, and economy. Climate change has cost Americans an additional $600 billion in physical and economic damages over the past five years alone. To respond, Federal agencies are taking action to protect the hard-earned life savings of workers and homeowners while protecting the broader financial system and the Federal Government’s fiscal health against climate-related financial risk.
     
  2. Leading by example across the Federal Government: The White House worked with Federal agencies to develop more than 20 climate adaptation and resilience plans to enhance climate readiness across their facilities and operations. This will reduce costs and damages caused by extreme weather, minimize disruptions to Federal programs and services, and protect workers and communities. Last week, USDA announced a strategy to address a reforestation backlog of four million acres on national forests and plant more than one billion trees over the next decade as part of its climate adaptation plan. Agencies are implementing the actions identified in their climate adaptation and resilience plans and will provide annual progress updates.
Biden Administration, Climate Action, Climate Change, Energy, Infrastructure

Biden in SOTU to Highlight Clean Energy Manufacturing and Deployment Investments that Cut Consumer Costs, Strengthen US Energy Sector and Create Good-Paying Jobs

President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi at his Speech to the Nation in 2021. This year’s SOTU, the President’s first, will be mask-optional, evidence of the Administration’s progress in ending the worst ravages of the coronavirus pandemic  © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via msnbc.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine likely to take up a large measure of President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union speech, he is unlikely to have enough time or space to detail his accomplishments and his agenda going forward. Here are more details from the White House about what the President will say about clean energy manufacturing, strengthening the US energy sector, and cutting consumer costs and creating good-paying jobs:

President Biden campaigned on a bold vision of tackling the climate crisis with the urgency that science demands by seizing the opportunity to build a strong domestic energy sector that can manufacture and deploy clean energy for the benefit of all Americans—with lower costs for families, good-paying jobs for workers, and healthier air and cleaner water for communities.

Since Day One, he has delivered. After rejoining the Paris Agreement, restoring scientific integrity, and reinvigorating U.S. leadership on the world stage, President Biden mobilized every federal agency to achieve groundbreaking goals: reducing greenhouse gas emissions 50-52% below 2005 levels in 2030, reaching 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035, and delivering 40% of the benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities. The President formed the first-ever National Climate Task Force, bringing together Cabinet leaders to drive decisive action toward those goals.

Alongside historic executive actions, President Biden also made climate action and environmental justice a centerpiece of his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—which includes the largest federal investments ever in upgrading the power grid, improving public transit and investing in zero-emission transit and school buses, installing a nationwide EV charging network, cleaning up legacy pollution, delivering clean water and replacing lead pipes, demonstrating innovative climate technologies, and increasing climate resilience to safeguard against extreme weather, which last year caused more than $145 billion in damages from the biggest 20 disasters alone.

CALLING ON CONGRESS TO DELIVER

President Biden knows that we need to move even faster to combat climate change—and that to meet the moment and fully seize the economic opportunity in front of us, Congress must act. In his first State of the Union address, the President will call on Congress to deliver on a legislative agenda for clean energy and climate action that has overwhelming support from the American people—Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.

Specifically, the President will lift up the benefits we can secure for American consumers, companies, and communities by enacting critical investments and tax credits for domestic clean energy manufacturing and deployment. He will also highlight how the investments and tax credits would cut energy costs for American families an average of $500 per year.

As part of the President’s unwavering support for climate solutions, these investments will reduce emissions, lower costs for families, create good-paying jobs for workers, and advance environmental justice.

BOLD ACTIONS TWO MONTHS INTO 2022

As the President works with Congress to deliver on this legislative agenda, he will continue taking decisive and bold action—building on the surge of momentum he has spearheaded to tackle the climate crisis. During just the first two months of 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration:

  • Announced actions from seven agencies on clean energy deployment, including new investments and partnerships to advance offshore wind; steps to fast-track solar, onshore wind, and geothermal energy on public lands; and the “Building a Better Grid” initiative to build out long-distance transmission lines and unlock clean energy resources.
     
  • Launched the Building Performance Standards Coalition with more than 30 state and local governments to reduce emissions, create good-paying union jobs in energy efficiency and electrification, and lower energy bills, with federal assistance for policy design and implementation.
     
  • Built on the Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan by announcing an initial $1.15 billion to clean up orphaned oil and gas wells, $725 million to reclaim abandoned mine lands, a new interagency initiative on measurement and monitoring of methane and other greenhouse emissions, enforcement efforts to minimize methane emissions from pipeline systems, and more. 
     
  • Advanced America’s electric vehicle future, standing with CEOs to announce new manufacturing facilities for electric vehicles, batteries, and chargers and issuing state allocations and guidance for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program.
     
  • Convened a roundtable of electric utility CEOs to discuss their support for Congressional investments in clean energy to reduce costs for families, make the power grid more resilient and reliable, and advance American innovation, job creation, and economic competitiveness.
     
  • Took major steps to reduce industrial emissions and advance clean manufacturing, including clean hydrogen investments, the first Buy Clean Task Force for federal purchasing of low-carbon construction materials, progress on carbon-based trade policies to reward clean steel and aluminum manufacturing, guidance on responsible deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration technologies, and new initiatives to ensure that industrial innovation benefits American workers and communities.
     
  • Released the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool for public feedback, to help agencies deliver benefits to disadvantaged communities and fulfill the President’s Justice40 commitment.
     
  • Announced major investments to secure a Made in America supply chain for critical minerals and sustainably source key inputs (including lithium and rare earth elements) for clean energy technologies like batteries, electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels. This includes taking action to update outdated mining regulations and laws to ensure that extraction and production adheres to strong environmental, labor, and community and Tribal engagement standards.
     
  • Released America’s Strategy to Secure the Supply Chain for a Robust Clean Energy Transition, a first-of-its-kind energy sector industrial base strategy, which includes the creation of a new Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains Office at the Department of Energy to strengthen, secure, and modernize the nation’s energy infrastructure and support clean energy manufacturing jobs.
     
  • Held a record-shattering offshore wind auction in the New York Bight, with winning bids for six lease areas totaling $4.37 billion, signaling the arrival of a strong American industry that’s here to stay. Innovative lease stipulations will promote projects built with union labor and Made in America materials, and these projects will generate clean electricity to power millions of homes.

HISTORIC YEAR OF PROGRESS
This wave of climate action to kick off 2022 builds on historic progress President Biden achieved during his first year in office, when he:

Established whole-of-government initiatives to: lead by example across the federal vehicle fleet, buildings, and procurement; conserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030; and build resilience to extreme heat, drought, wildfires, floods, and coastal impacts.

Biden Administration, Climate Action, Energy, Environment

Biden-Harris Administration Sets Offshore Energy Records with $4.37 Billion in Winning Bids for Wind Sale

New York Bight lease sale has potential to power nearly two million homes

Republicans like Congressman Lee Zeldin, who is seeking to take over as Governor of New York, are still wedded to fossil fuels and determined if they regain control, to reverse course on efforts to transition to a clean renewable energy economy, society, and environment and stem the tide of climate change. This was clear when Zeldin chided President Joe Biden at a pro-Ukraine rally in Long Island for canceling the Keystone Pipeline, which he somehow suggested would have countered impact of sanctions against Nordstrom 2.

But even as Biden leads a global alliance to counter Putin’s criminal aggression against Ukraine, and makes a historic nomination of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, makes historic investments in infrastructure to clean up the environment, develop the economy, promote competition and address supply chain issues, his administration is forging ahead with historic climate actions. In the latest, the administration reports setting records for offshore energy development with $4.37 billion in winning bids for wind sale.

Of course, the correct answer to reducing dependency on fossil fuel is what the Biden-Harris Administration is doing: transitioning to clean, renewable energy that can be generated in localities, so less vulnerable to geopolitics and cyberattacks.

This is from the Department of the Interior:

Long Island climate activists raise a wind turbine outside Long Island Power Authority’s offices back in 2016 (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior announced the results of the nation’s highest-grossing competitive offshore energy lease sale in history, including oil and gas lease sales, with the New York Bight offshore wind sale. These results are a major milestone towards achieving the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. Today’s lease sale offered six lease areas totaling over 488,000 acres in the New York Bight for potential wind energy development and drew competitive winning bids from six companies totaling approximately $4.37 billion.

A recent report indicates that the United States’ growing offshore wind energy industry presents a $109 billion revenue opportunity to businesses in the supply chain over the next decade.

“This week’s offshore wind sale makes one thing clear: the enthusiasm for the clean energy economy is undeniable and it’s here to stay,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “The investments we are seeing today will play an important role in delivering on the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to tackle the climate crisis and create thousands of good-paying, union jobs across the nation.”

The provisional winners of today’s lease sale are:

Provisional Winner Lease Area Acres Winning Bid 
OW Ocean Winds East, LLC OCS-A 0537 71,522 $765,000,000 
Attentive Energy LLC OCS-A 0538 84,332 $795,000,000 
Bight Wind Holdings, LLC OCS-A 0539 125,964 $1,100,000,000 
Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Bight, LLC OCS-A 0541 79,351 $780,000,000 
Invenergy Wind Offshore LLC OCS-A 0542 83,976 $645,000,000 
Mid-Atlantic Offshore Wind LLC OCS-A 0544 43,056 $285,000,000 

A map of the lease areas auctioned today can be found on the BOEM website.

Before the leases are finalized, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission will conduct an anti-competitiveness review of the auction, and the provisional winners will be required to pay the winning bids and provide financial assurance to Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

The New York Bight offshore wind leases include innovative stipulations designed to promote the development of a robust domestic U.S. supply chain for offshore wind energy and enhance engagement with Tribes, the commercial fishing industry, other ocean users and underserved communities. The stipulations will also advance flexibility in transmission planning. Stipulations include incentives to source major components domestically – such as blades, turbines and foundations – and to enter into project labor agreements to ensure projects are union-built.

“We must have a robust and resilient domestic offshore wind supply chain to deliver good-paying, union jobs and the economic benefits to residents in the region,” said BOEM Director Amanda Lefton. “Because we understand the value of meaningful community engagement, we are requiring lessees to report their engagement activities to BOEM, specifically noting how they’re incorporating any feedback into their future plans.”

On Jan. 12, Secretary Haaland, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced a shared vision for developing a robust offshore wind energy domestic supply chain that will deliver benefits to residents of New York and New Jersey and the surrounding region, including underserved communities. This collaboration will serve as a model for future engagement and establish the U.S. as a major player in the global offshore wind energy market.

To advance the Interior Department’s environmental justice and economic empowerment goals, lessees will be required to identify and make efforts to engage with Tribes, underserved communities, and other ocean users who could be affected by offshore wind energy development. The Department will hold companies accountable for improving their engagement, communication and transparency with these communities.

These additions are intended to promote offshore wind energy development in a way that coexists with other ocean uses and protects the ocean environment, while also securing our nation’s energy future for generations to come.
BOEM initially asked for information and nominations of commercial interest on 1.7 million acres in the New York Bight. Based on BOEM’s review of scientific data and extensive input from the commercial fishing industry, Tribes, partnering agencies, key stakeholders, and the public, BOEM reduced the acreage offered for lease by 72% to avoid conflicts with ocean users and minimize environmental impacts. BOEM will continue to engage with the public, ocean users, and key stakeholders as the process unfolds.

The Administration has already made significant progress toward creating a pipeline of projects. It has approved and celebrated the groundbreaking of the nation’s first two commercial-scale offshore wind projects in federal waters: the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project and the 130-megawatt South Fork Wind project. BOEM expects to review at least 16 plans to construct and operate commercial offshore wind energy facilities by 2025, which would represent more than 22 GW of clean energy for the nation.

In addition, this past fall Secretary Haaland announced a new leasing path forward, which identified up to seven potential lease sales by 2025, including the New York Bight and offshore the Carolinas and California later this year, to be followed by lease sales for the Central Atlantic, Gulf of Maine, the Gulf of Mexico, and offshore Oregon.

More information about today’s auction can be found on BOEM’s website.