By Clémentine MALIGORNE.
US President Joe Biden has officially launched a new jobs program, focused on climate. Campaigning for his re-election, he announced in a clip broadcast on social networks the opening of applications to join the American Climate Corps, a program aimed at preparing young people for jobs in climate-related sectors.
2,000 is the number of people that American President Joe Biden, in the campaign, is seeking to recruit to form a “climate army”. In other words, to fight climate change, young Americans are invited to apply for training or jobs in the environmental sector.
To attract young talents, the White House has been broadcasting a 40-second clip on social networks since April 25, worthy of a blockbuster trailer. In a clearing, in the middle of a forest, Joe Biden, alongside Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey, begin by taking photos of themselves on a phone. Ray-Ban style sunglasses on their noses, to the sound of rhythmic music, facing the lens, the three introduce themselves very briefly. Then in less than 40 seconds, the three protagonists take turns speaking, to promote this recruitment campaign for “get paid to fight climate change”.
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Thus, 2,000 positions and training courses are open across the country. Potential candidates are encouraged to apply online at ClimateCorps.gov. This government site currently lists 270 job and training advertisements in the sector of environmental protection and the development of renewable energies. Posted by the White House on social networks since April 25, this clip has already been seen more than 800,000 times on X, but also republished, commented on, criticized or even mocked and parodied thousands of times.
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Joe Biden on the campaign trail
For Americans, this government campaign is reminiscent of another. The one initiated under Roosevelt in 1933, the “Civilian Conservation Corps”, a program launched, as part of the “New Deal”, by putting young men to work to get the United States out of the Great Depression. The White House also clearly claims the inheritance. “I will put tens of thousands of young people to work, at the forefront of our climate resilience and clean energy future”launched Monday April 22 Joe Biden, on the occasion of Earth Day, during a trip to Virginia. “You’ll get paid to fight climate change, learning how to install those solar panels, fight wildfires, rebuild wetlands, weatherproof homes and much more,” Biden added.
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These job creations are part of a broader climate plan from the Biden administration, which announced $7 billion in grants for residential solar initiatives, helping to power nearly a million of these homes, according to the White House. A program that is part of Joe Biden’s objective of devoting 40% of federal investments in clean energy to disadvantaged communities. This announcement also comes in the middle of the electoral campaign for the re-election of Joe Biden. Young voters are in fact a prime target for the Democratic president who is preparing to face his Republican predecessor Donald Trump in the November election.
The outgoing president’s environmental record is one of the subjects at the center of this campaign. Along with the other G7 countries which represent 38% of the global economy and are responsible for 21% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to figures for 2021 from the Institute for Climate Analysis, the United States does not are not on track to meet the emissions reduction targets for 2030. In 2023, around 60% of the country’s electricity production came from gas (43%) or coal (16%) power plants, according to the American Agency information on energy, followed by renewable energies (21%) and nuclear (18%).
