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In September 2023, the Biden Administration announced the creation of the American Climate Corps, a training-focused initiative to prepare the next generation of workers for careers that involve sustainable and climate-smart practices. The Climate Corps is meant to make progress on various conservation projects, prepare young people for future environmentally-conscious jobs, and emphasize environmental justice. The program’s description highlights a clear effort to recognize the intersectionality of the climate crisis and address racial justice issues that stem from demographic disparities in environmental efforts and issues.

Conservation Work

The Climate Corps’ approximately 20,000 participants will be actively working on projects that address a variety of issues exacerbated by the climate crisis. The Associated Press reports that potential jobs will include, “…restoring coastal wetlands to protect communities from storm surges and flooding; clean energy projects such as wind and solar power; managing forests to prevent catastrophic wildfires; and energy efficient solutions to cut energy bills for consumers.” These initiatives display a recognition of the present and growing threat posed by warming temperatures, high greenhouse gas emissions, and the widespread use of fossil fuels. From the devastating effects of the Maui wildfires this past summer to the 2021 electric grid blackouts in Texas, climate change is causing tragedies that are harming many Americans . The Climate Corps will take on conservation work that should help mitigate or prevent the worst effects of these impactful climate-based events. 

Preparing the Next Generation

Similar to the New Deal programs that former President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) championed to lift the United States out of the Great Depression, a main goal of the Climate Corps is to give young American workers a job that will help them later on. However, a key difference is that Biden’s program hopes to open up pathways to future careers in sustainability and conservation, while FDR’s program was focused on creating jobs as fast as possible to revitalize the economy. Given that Biden created the Climate Corps when the unemployment rate was 3.8% while FDR began signing New Deal programs when the unemployment rate was 24.9%, it is evident that Biden is more concerned with the market for sustainability and conservation jobs, rather than the job market as a whole. Ideally, this program will have long-term benefits for the strength, efficiency, and quality of work done in conservation and sustainability-related jobs. For example, as participants install solar panels and restore ecosystems, they will gain the skills necessary to pursue a career path in the fields of renewable energy or ecology. Increasing the number of trained individuals in these sectors will give the U.S. a prepared workforce that is critical for pursuing and achieving wider climate goals.  Furthermore, the increased concern about the climate crisis among young Americans perfectly positions the Climate Corps to leverage a worker pool that is eager to get involved with the specific undertakings of this program.

Environmental Justice

The Climate Corps hopes to prioritize diversity, both in the makeup of its participants and the projects that it addresses. The initiative’s description reflects the long-ignored fact that the climate crisis disproportionately affects people of color and those living in poverty. The Climate Corps intends to account for those disparities by prioritizing the involvement of a diverse group of participants, specifically those from historically marginalized communities that may also have dealt with some of the worst climate change-caused events. Members of the Climate Corps will also take on projects that improve, resolve, or prevent the effects of climate change, including projects in places where climate change tends to have worse consequences for minorities and people from lower socioeconomic classes. By leveraging the skills and experiences of all Americans, the program is poised to have a more significant impact in terms of combating environmental racism.

Plan of Action

According to the White House press release, the Climate Corps plans to do several things to reach the aforementioned goals. To promote climate-related career development, the program will create a strong training program for participants, expand access to AmeriCorps Segal Education Awards, coordinate recruitment with other federal agencies, and streamline access to civil service programs. It will tackle conservation work and environmental justice issues by working closely with states, tribes, and local governments that have past experience with similar programs to coordinate efforts and ensure positive outcomes for everyone involved.

The American Climate Corps and the Green New Deal

While the United States has previously never seen a climate program of this caliber, the structure of the Climate Corps is not entirely new. The framework of the Climate Corps has drawn comparisons to FDR’s New Deal programs, though the objectives of this initiative are more reminiscent of an even more recent proposal: The Green New Deal. 

The Green New Deal is a proposed climate resolution that outlines many radical actions that the United States will have to take in order to counter climate change. Introduced in 2019 by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, it aims to tackle the climate crisis by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, economic inequality, and racial injustice. 

The Green New Deal (H.Res.109) claims that the federal government has the responsibility to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in a fair manner, create many high-wage jobs, invest in domestic infrastructure and industry, ensure access to a variety of natural resources for all Americans, and prevent oppression of historically marginalized communities. 

Some of the proposal’s action items include investing in clean energy, offering marginalized communities leadership roles within the plan’s rollout, creating good union jobs to reach the outlined goals, protecting public lands and waters, and providing universal access to training and education. 

The Green New Deal was blocked by Senate Republicans who believed the plan was too radical and costly. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley called it “an unworkable pie-in-the-sky attempt to reshape every aspect of everyday Americans’ lives.” However, even some Democrats viewed the proposal as more of an aspirational model than a realistic plan of action. 

Even though the Green New Deal failed to pass in its entirety, several subsequent pieces of successful legislation have included provisions that reflect parts of the 2019 proposal. Sen. Markey and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez recently released a guide, titled Delivering a Green New Deal, that explains how Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act can be optimally used to further the goals of the Green New Deal. Similarly, the creation of the Climate Corps demonstrates how yet another piece of the Green New Deal has been enacted as an individual piece of legislation. 

The Climate Corps’ intent to create high paying jobs and career pathways, increase accessibility of clean energy, conserve lands and waters, and do these things in a manner that uplifts victims of environmental injustice shows a clear commitment to the Green New Deal’s priorities and values. While the Climate Corps does not appear to be attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are a significant part of the Green New Deal, it does place a strong emphasis on increasing natural conservation and clean energy. Both of those endeavors are explicitly mentioned in the Green New Deal. However, the most notable similarity is the commitment to including a diverse community while reaching these environmental goals. The recognition that climate action is linked to racial and socioeconomic justice is a revolutionary perspective that few previous pieces of legislation have considered. 

Despite the number of striking similarities, the American Climate Corps is not an implementation of the Green New Deal. The Climate Corps addresses just a few of the Green New Deal’s provisions but does so in a way that matches the values and proposed rollout of the Green New Deal. Many climate activists have applauded the Biden Administration for creating the Climate Corps but continue to call for additional climate programs and action that will fulfill the other goals of the Green New Deal.

As for the Green New Deal itself, skepticism on both sides of the aisle continue to prevent its passage. The obstacle of Congress, especially the Republican-majority House of Representatives, has proved insurmountable so far.  Despite this, future legislation may follow the current pattern of breaking the Green New Deal down into smaller pieces and passing those individual provisions separately. For many elected officials, the Green New Deal simply encompasses too many things. Separating such a broad proposal into different pieces of legislation will likely allow more of them to pass into law. On the other hand, some provisions, like the Climate Corps, may succeed as an executive order rather than a congressional bill. 

The Green New Deal may never be passed directly, but there is no doubt that it will continue to influence climate policy through other legislation. One example of this, the American Climate Corps, has the potential to make progress on climate action and uplift a generation of Americans who see the harsh realities of climate change. Even though the Climate Corps is not a comprehensive solution to avoid the worst effects of climate change, it is a step in the right direction. For climate activists and the growing body of Americans calling for action against the climate crisis, that may have to suffice.