ICYMI: President Biden Celebrates Generational Climate Initiatives in Speech at Bloomberg Global Business Forum
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 25, 2024
PRESS CONTACT: [email protected]
ICYMI: PRESIDENT BIDEN CELEBRATES GENERATIONAL CLIMATE INITIATIVES IN SPEECH AT BLOOMBERG GLOBAL BUSINESS FORUM
Biden-Harris Administration’s climate agenda has used the full breadth of the federal government to combat climate change, increase resiliency, make clean energy affordable and invest in justice for fenceline communities
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, President Biden spoke to the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York City, celebrating the generational climate initiatives that the Biden-Harris Administration has led. Since taking office, President Biden and Vice President Harris have been at the forefront of investing in our new climate economy — building up clean energy generation across the country and securing our modern technology supply chains, all while ensuring environmental justice, especially for fenceline communities that have been the most impacted by legacy pollution.
In his speech, the president laid out the success of his administration’s laser-focus on building the clean economy of the future — attracting hundreds of billions in private sector investment, creating hundreds of thousands of new clean energy jobs and lowering energy costs for families struggling to make ends meet. Through the president’s signature Investing in America agenda, this administration is working to support innovation, ensure competitiveness and help hard-working families take part in the climate revolution. Thanks to the president’s vision, last year, clean energy jobs grew at double the rate of job growth in the rest of the economy, while clean energy unionization rates reached the highest level in history.
As President Biden told the crowd, “Rather than climate conversations about sacrifice, focused on doing less, Kamala and I have pursued an ambitious climate policy focused on growth, and the public and private sector … [have] led, building our economic capacity, together we’re improving the strong middle class. Thriving innovation and manufacturing are the key to winning the climate here at home and abroad.”
In response to the president’s remarks, Building Back Together Deputy Executive Director Javier Gamboa said, “President Biden’s vision to foster the economy of the future will have long-lasting impacts for generations of Americans. While MAGA Republicans in Congress continue to deny settled climate science and have vowed to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden and Vice President Harris’ bold actions on climate have ensured that the United States continues to lead the world in transitioning our economy, fighting climate change and securing our planet for generations to come.”
President Biden’s full remarks can be viewed here.
Bloomberg: Biden Hails US Economic Gains From Confronting Climate Change
President Joe Biden cast the climate crisis as a new economic opportunity for the US, saying his policies in office had developed “a new formula” to fight global warming while also creating jobs and bolstering domestic industries.
“When it comes to the climate, every time I talk about it, whether I was trying to convince labor or business to come along, I say ‘I think climate, I think jobs,’” Biden told executives gathered at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York on Tuesday.
Biden’s remarks represented a bid to burnish his legacy confronting climate change and accelerating clean energy deployment weeks ahead of a pivotal US election set to dictate the country’s trajectory on the issues for years to come.
POLITICO: Biden on his climate legacy ‘We did it’
Biden argued that the benefits of his climate law have reached vast swaths of the American public — regardless of their political affiliation.
“I might point out I was criticized very much for having done more to invest in red states than blue states,” he said. “But I made a commitment when I ran that I would be president for all people, all people, whether they voted for me or not.”
Biden touted his Day 1 move to reenter the Paris climate agreement that Trump had pulled out of — reasserting America’s position as a global leader.
He also ticked off what he said were the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act: 330,000 new jobs, $1 trillion in announced investments in clean energy manufacturing and a quadrupling of U.S. solar panel production.
“This year, we’ll add more new electric capacity than we have in two decades” — 96 percent of which will be from clean energy sources, Biden said. “And we’re just getting started.”
Newsweek: Biden Seeks to Burnish Environmental Legacy at Climate Week NYC
As he has from the beginning of his presidency, Biden touted the economic benefits of a clean energy transition.
“When I think climate, I think jobs,” he said. He called his strategy of linking pollution reduction to job growth the “new formula on climate” that has allowed him and Vice President Kamala Harris to break the old paradigm that pits the economy against ecology.
“Rather than a conversation about sacrifice, Kamala and I have pursued an ambitious program focused on growth,” he said and added that the approach is working.
###