Update (April 2024): The American Climate Corps website and application portal are now live! This historic program will connect 20,000 Americans to careers in climate solutions—and build the workforce we need to lead the global clean energy economy.
As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt entered office in 1933, the Great Depression reached its zenith and the national unemployment rate hit 25%. Meeting that moment with the urgency it deserved, President Roosevelt moved swiftly to enact a sweeping package of stimulus programs.
Amid the overlapping crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, racial injustice and more, the country today is in similarly dire straits. The mounting crises we face call for bold governance on par with Roosevelt’s New Deal. Biden must take ambitious action and lead a workforce mobilization at a scale unseen in 90 years.
A new Civilian Climate Corps is uniquely positioned to jumpstart a revolutionary clean economy, preparing millions for good-paying careers while also strengthening American communities
A new Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) presents a rare opportunity to jumpstart a revolutionary clean economy, preparing millions for good-paying careers while also strengthening the ties of American communities. And President Biden has already taken steps to make the CCC a reality. Inspired by FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, and building on recommendations from Governor Jay Inslee’s presidential campaign, the Evergreen Action Plan, and the ground-breaking report from the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, Biden’s proposal seizes this chance to make real change.
In this paper, we lay out how the new CCC can take shape. We propose an ambitious corps, designed to deploy 1.5 million corpsmembers over the next five years. The CCC must invest in pathways into good union jobs, and ensure that frontline communities and historically underserved populations are prioritized—an equitable Climate Corps should make a generational investment in leadership of color, and facilitate lasting change in marginalized communities. As cities and towns across the country are uprooted and destabilized by mounting climate disasters, the CCC can spark national solidarity, putting people to work in their communities to build a better future.