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President Joe Biden on Tuesday will tell a group of top business leaders that the climate crisis presents unprecedented economic opportunity Tuesday in what the White House is billing as a “decisive decade halftime report” following his final speech to the UN General Assembly as president.
Speaking to the New York City-based Bloomberg Global Business Forum, the president is expected to make the case for a future that focuses on building up US manufacturing and infrastructure, and rebuilding the American middle class.
In a preview of the speech on Monday, National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi told reporters that the president will not be “focused on doom and gloom,” despite somewhat grim projections of the rapidly warming world.
Instead, he will tout accomplishments made during the course of his presidency. According to Zaidi, some of those include launching the offshore wind industry; building 100 gigawatts of clean energy in the US; bringing nuclear plants back online; working to raise electric vehicles sales; finalizing standards for more efficient appliances that will save a trillion dollars over coming decades; and what he described as the “largest investment in clean energy electrification since FDR.”
On Friday, Microsoft and Constellation Energy announced a major deal to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant: the site of the worst nuclear accident in the nation’s history.
“He’s done all of this while protecting the environment,” Zaidi said. “It’s been noted: 42 million acres served by tackling the scourge of environmental injustice.”
But Zaidi did not go any further into related feats.
“He’s made sure that we are leaning into the manufacturing opportunity in all of this,” he said, highlighting that the US had made a whopping $900 billion in manufacturing.
Zaidi also made sure to credit Vice President Kamala Harris for the “historic efforts” that resulted in jobs coming back and “America leading on climate.”
“Even today, governors will come together to announce a goal to train another million folks into registered apprenticeships that deliver on the climate workforce that we need to build this clean energy future,” he added.
Zaidi said that Biden would deliver these progress points “eloquently,” and in a way to “hopefully activate and animate accelerated action” around the globe.
Biden’s remarks to the General Assembly and the Bloomberg climate event come as the White House is seeking to tamp down talk of him as a lame duck despite his decision to stand down from his re-election bid in favor of his vice president. Harris is currently running close race against Donald Trump in key battleground states.
In a memorandum distributed to reporters on Monday, White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt said Biden’s “clear” record of achievements includes “beating a once in a century pandemic while protecting American families,” “transforming an economy that was flat on its back when he came into office to the strongest in the world,” strengthening American alliances and “restoring decency and dignity to the White House.”
LaBolt said Biden is pushing his team to “to lay it all out on the field” for the approximately four months remaining until he relinquishes the presidency to either Harris or Trump.
Should voters opt to send Trump back to the White House for a second four-year term, he is expected to put significant effort into dismantling the climate programs enacted under Biden. Trump has repeatedly described climate change as a “hoax” and called policies meant to promote renewable energy usage “scams.”
The Independent will be revealing its Climate100 List this week and hosting an event in New York, which can be attended online.
