To battle climate change in California, White House team focuses on green energy, water management
Jan. 20 marks one year since the Biden-Harris administration took office and rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement. Soon after, President Joe Biden appointed the country’s first-ever national climate advisor, Gina McCarthy, to head a White House team on climate change.
McCarthy said that over the past couple of years, the public’s recognition of climate change as a threat has changed dramatically.
“The light dawned on so many people over the past couple of years as they’ve looked at these floods and these terrible hurricanes and typhoons. And it’s very challenging in the U.S. and even the world, which means we have to recognize that our climate has changed,” McCarthy said.
For California, the threats of climate change are already here in the form of increasing drought; bigger, hotter, more frequent wildfires; and more days with extreme pollution. McCarthy said that has her team focused on investing in mitigation and resilience strategies.
“It’s a situation where we need to really accelerate our investments in clean energy. And the opportunity to do that is remarkable. We have to be smarter not just about water use but how we invest in water systems that recognize that the ice at the top of those mountains just isn’t there anymore,” McCarthy said.
At least “not there” in a way that’s reliable year in and year out.
McCarthy said the Build Back Better plan will help provide some much-needed investing resources to California to help sure up infrastructure and create more clean energy jobs. This is all part of the White House climate change team’s plan to help the U.S. meet its commitments to the Paris Agreement, which includes substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
It’s a lofty goal, but McCarthy and her team have hope.
“Technology is there. The opportunities and the hopefulness that we can bring and show by just investing in people and families and workers again is really quite remarkable,” McCarthy said.