President Biden commits $2.3bn to tackle climate crisis as temperatures soar

US President Joe Biden has revealed his plan worth $2.3bn to tackle the climate crisis and extreme weather, as the Democrats struggle to pass through envrionmental legislation. 

The money will go towards building infrastructure to help adapt to the crisis, as millions of Americans are living under heat warnings this week. 

The President unveiled the plan in a speech he gave in Massachusetts, with funding set to develop flood control, retrofit buildings and help families cover heating and air conditioning bills.

He said: ‘Climate change is literally an existential threat to our nation and to the world,” the president said in Wednesday’s speech, which was delivered outside a former coal-fired power plant in the town of Somerset. “The health of our citizens and our communities is… at stake. So we have to act.’

The strategy also includes plans to expand offshore wind farms and energy development in the Gulf of Mexico which could create thousands of new jobs. 

The money is set to come from the existing Federal Emergency Managment Agency and will be prioritised for disadvantaged communities.

$385m will go towards funding air conditioning units in homes and community cooling centres, while new workplace standards will also be brought in to protect citizens from extreme weather. 

However, President Biden did not go as far as to declare a federal emergency which could have given him more powers to tackle the crisis. 

But he has not entirely ruled out this possibility, as his environmental agenda has been stalled after conservative Democrat and West Virigina Senator, Joe Manchin, said he would not support any legislation aimed at tackling the climate crisis. 

‘This Congress, not withstanding the leadership of that men and women that are here today has, failed in its duty,’ he continued. ‘So let me be clear: climate change is an emergency. And in the coming weeks I’m going to use the power I have as president to turn these words into formal, official government actions for the appropriate proclamations, executive orders and regulatory power that the president possesses.’

‘Our children and grandchildren are counting on us. If we don’t keep it below 1.5 degrees centigrade, we lose it all. You don’t get to turn it around. And the world is counting on us.’

Photo by Aaron Burden