U.S. President Joe Biden has announced $2.3 billion to help build infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather and natural disasters. But he stopped short of formally declaring a climate emergency, which would grant him further powers.
Tens of millions of people in the United States, across more than two dozen states, were living under heat warnings, as temperatures hit record highs in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
“Climate change is literally an existential threat to our nation and to the world,” the president said in a speech delivered outside a former coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts. “The health of our citizens and our communities is . . . at stake. So we have to act.”
Biden said the funding would go to expanding flood control, shoring up utilities, retrofitting buildings, and helping families pay for heating and cooling costs.
The money comes from an existing Federal Emergency Management Agency budget and will be prioritized for disadvantaged communities, said the White House. It includes $385 million to help states fund air conditioning units in homes and community cooling center.
The administration also plans to provide additional support for offshore wind and energy development in the Gulf of Mexico, and enforce new workplace standards to help protect workers from extreme weather.
