President Obama believes that no challenge poses a greater threat to our children, our planet, and future generations than climate change — and that no other country on Earth is better equipped to lead the world towards a solution.
That’s why under President Obama’s leadership, the United States has done more to combat climate change than ever before.
The measures taken by the public and private sectors enabled President Obama to set an ambitious but achievable goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by 26-28% by 2025 last November. And in the eleven months since, we’ve seen unprecedented global momentum in the fight against climate change.
To date, more than 180 countries representing nearly 95% of global carbon emissions have reported post-2020 climate policies to the United Nations. This includes the major economies like the U.S., China, the European Union and India and it includes a large number of smaller economies, developing nations, island states and tropical countries — some of whom are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
The EPA announced proposed standards to directly reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector to help address climate change:
FACT SHEET: Obama Administration Partners with Private Sector on New Commitments to Slash Emissions of Potent Greenhouse Gases
FACT SHEET: Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Federal Government and Across the Supply Chain
Recognizing the role that forests and agricultural activities place in GHG emissions, in April 2015, USDA announced its Building Blocks for Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry - an approach to reduce GHG emissions from agricultural production, increase carbon storage in our forests and soils, and generate clean renewable energy. These actions will foster resilient economies and food systems while also reducing emissions and improving environmental conditions.
Climate Change and the Land Sector: Improving Measurement, Mitigation and Resilience of our Natural Resources
Get the full list of schools standing behind the ACAC pledge:
ARPA-E has invested approximately $1.1 billion across more than 400 potentially transformational energy technology projects. The President’s FY16 Budget also called for $325 million for DOE’S ARPA-E to further support potentially transformative applied energy research.
In October 2012, the Secretary of the Interior signed a Record of Decision finalizing a program to facilitate development of solar energy on public lands in six southwestern states. The Western Solar Plan provides a blueprint for utility-scale solar energy permitting in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah by establishing solar energy zones with access to existing or planned transmission, incentives for development within those zones, and a process through which to consider additional zones and solar projects.
Mobilizing $4 Billion in Private-Sector Support for Homegrown Clean Energy Innovation
Increasing Solar Access for All Americans
FACT SHEET: President Obama Announces New Actions to Bring Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency to Households across the Country
Last year, the United States brought online as much solar energy every three weeks as it did in all of 2008, and the solar industry added jobs 10 times faster than the rest of the economy. Since the beginning of 2010, the average cost of a solar electric system has dropped by 50 percent. In fact, distributed solar prices fell 10 to 20 percent in 2014 alone and currently 44 states have pricing structures that encourage increased penetration of distributed energy resources.
Across the country, low-income housing leaders and service providers are stepping up to deploy solar on affordable multifamily properties; because solar makes economic sense for them, brings an economic boost to struggling communities and families, and it’s something that works now.
President Obama Speaks on American Energy
FACT SHEET: Administration Announces New Agenda To Modernize Energy Infrastructure
FACT SHEET: Administration Announces Actions to Bring Jobs and Clean Energy to Rural America
President Obama is committed to improving the nation’s electric grid and spurring the development of renewable energy. The Administration announced new investments in the next generation of power transmission and smart grid technology in 13 states and executive actions that will make it easier and faster to permit transmission lines.
DOD Privatized Housing Solar Challenge:
Approximately 72 MWs of solar energy producing infrastructure has been installed on over 60,000 Department of Defense (DOD) privatized housing units to date. To amplify this progress, earlier this summer, DOD and the White House Council on Environmental Quality convened the companies that own the privatized housing units to share best practices and encourage them to set goals for increasing the amount of solar energy generated on privatized military housing through the end of 2016.
Today, four companies are committing to provide solar power to housing on over 40 military bases across the United States, while saving military families money on energy bills and making military communities more energy secure. These commitments total over 233 MWs, reducing annual carbon emissions by approximately 324 metric tons.
Electric Vehicles Can Lower Emissions and Enhance Resiliency
Electric vehicles can actually be used to shorten or end power outages by plugging their reserves into the grid. This is the kind of innovation we need to take action on climate change — reducing emissions on the one hand and finding creative ways to boost community resilience on the other.
"Today at the White House, the Departments of the Navy, Agriculture and Energy announced new contracts to construct and commission biorefineries capable of producing drop-in, military-compatible fuels that can be used in our most advanced warfighting platforms and by commercial industry. Together, the three companies receiving the awards will produce more than 100 million gallons of military grade fuel – at a price that’s competitive with fossil fuel."
Remarks by the President on Jobs in Solar Energy
April 03, 2015
"I'm announcing a new goal to train 75,000 workers to enter the solar industry by 2020. As part of this, we’re creating what we’re calling a “Solar Ready Vets” program that’s modeled after some successful pilot initiatives that have already been established over the last several years. It's going to train transitioning military personnel for careers in this growing industry at 10 bases — including right here at Hill.
"And as part of this effort, we’re also going to work with states to enable more veterans to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill for solar job training. And it’s one of the many steps that we’re taking to help nearly 700,000 veterans and military spouses get a job. In fact, about 30 percent of the federal workforce is now made up of veterans. I’ve said it before, and I think employers are starting to catch on, if you really want to get the job done, hire a veteran."
REPORT: Climate Action Plan Progress Report
President Obama Speaks on American Energy
President Obama announces new steps to help generate more clean energy, waste less energy overall, and leave our kids and our grandkids with a cleaner, safer planet in the process.
This new global framework lays the foundation for countries to work together to put the world on a path to keeping global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius and sets an ambitious vision to go even farther than that. This Agreement sends a strong signal to the private sector that the global economy is moving towards clean energy, and that through innovation and ingenuity, we can achieve our climate objectives while creating new jobs, raising standards of living and lifting millions out of poverty.
The Paris Agreement is also the culmination of a broader effort by nations, businesses, cities, and citizens to reorient the global economy to a path of low-carbon growth – progress that will accelerate as a result of the Agreement’s provisions on mitigation ambition, transparency, and climate finance.
This announcement is a unique development in the U.S.-China relationship. The world’s two largest economies, energy consumers, and carbon emitters are reaching across traditional divides and working together to demonstrate leadership on an issue that affects the entire world.
By making this announcement well in advance of the deadline set out in the UNFCCC negotiations, the two leaders demonstrated their commitment to reducing the harmful emissions warming our planet, and encouraged other world leaders to follow suit in offering strong national targets ahead of the final negotiations in Paris.
In November 2014, President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping stood together in Beijing to make a historic U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change, emphasizing their personal commitment to a successful climate agreement in Paris and marking a new era of multilateral climate diplomacy as well as a new pillar in their bilateral relationship. On the occasion of President Xi’s State Visit to Washington, D.C., the two Presidents reaffirm their shared conviction that climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity and that their two countries have a critical role to play in addressing it.
Through the initiative, 20 countries are committing to double their respective clean energy research and development (R&D) investment over five years. These countries include the top five most populous nations – China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. They stretch across five continents. And when you add all partner countries together, they represent 75 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions from electricity, and more than 80 percent of the world’s clean energy R&D investment. These additional public resources will be supported by the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, an independent effort by 28 top private investors from around the world, led by Bill Gates, to commit unprecedented levels of private capital to help bring breakthrough energy technologies to the market in Mission Innovation member countries.
"APEC joined the G20 in sending an unequivocal message that we need to reach an ambitious climate change agreement in Paris. I also want to note the landmark step we took this week with more than 30 other nations at the OECD to dramatically reduce subsidies for coal-fired power plants around the world — which is an important way to advance the fight against climate change." -—President Obama
U.S.-Brazil Joint Statement On Climate Change
FACT SHEET: U.S.-Indonesia Climate Cooperation
United States and Other Countries to Work Together on Phase Down of HFCs
The United States is work together and with other countries to use the expertise and institutions of the Montreal Protocol to phase down the consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), among other forms of multilateral cooperation. A global phase down of HFCs could potentially reduce some 90 gigatons of CO2 equivalent by 2050, equal to roughly two years worth of current global greenhouse gas emissions.
FACT SHEET: United States Support for Global Efforts to Combat Carbon Pollution and Build Resilience
Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States will double its grant-based, public climate finance for adaptation by 2020. As of 2014, the United States invested more than $400 million per year of grant-based resources for climate adaptation in developing countries. These investments provide vulnerable countries with support — through both bilateral and multilateral channels — to reduce climate risks in key areas, including infrastructure, agriculture, health and water services.
These contributions to the LDCF will continue supporting priorities identified by recipient countries that are essential for climate-resilient sustainable development and livelihoods.
The Climate Services for Resilient Development Partnership, initially announced by the President at the UN Climate Summit in New York last September, will provide actionable science, data, information, tools, and training to developing countries that are working to strengthen their national resilience against the impacts of climate change. The Partnership is launching with more than $34 million in financial and in-kind contributions from the U.S. government and seven other founding-partner institutions from around the world: the American Red Cross, Asian Development Bank, Esri, Google, Inter-American Development Bank, the Skoll Global Threats Fund, and the U.K. government.
Expanding Climate Risk Insurance in Developing Countries:
This announcement is an important step toward the goal G-7 leaders set this summer to increase by up to 400 million the number of people in the most vulnerable developing countries who will have access to insurance against the negative impact of climate change hazards by 2020.
FACT SHEET: The President’s Climate Data Initiative: Empowering America’s Communities to Prepare for the Effects of Climate Change
Unleashing Data and Tools to Boost Climate Resilience in India
Promoting Green Goods Trade to Address Climate Change
Executive Order -- Climate-Resilient International Development
Promoting Green Goods Trade to Address Climate Change
President Obama Announces Historic 54.5 mpg Fuel Efficiency Standard
EPA Strengthens Ozone Standards to Protect Public Health/Science-based standards to reduce sick days, asthma attacks, emergency room visits, greatly outweigh costs:
Released a national Clean Water Framework that recognizes the importance of clean water and healthy watersheds to our economy, environment and communities, and emphasizes the importance of partnerships and coordination with states, local communities, stakeholders, and the public to protect public health and water quality, and promote the nation’s energy and economic security.
“With today’s rule, we take another step towards protecting the waters that belong to all of us.” — President Obama on finalizing the Clean Water Rule
President Obama’s Plan to Win the Future by Making American Businesses More Energy Efficient through the “Better Buildings Initiative”
Memo on Appliance Efficiency Standards
We’re Using More Clean Energy than Ever Before:
Announcing $4 billion in new clean energy commitments from investors and foundations.
In President Obama's first term, DOE and HUD completed efficiency upgrades in nearly two million homes, saving many families more than $400 on their heating and cooling bills in the first year alone.
FACT SHEET: The President’s Climate Data Initiative: Empowering America’s Communities to Prepare for the Effects of Climate Change
A Toolkit to Help Communities Respond to a Changing Climate
"As part of his Climate Action Plan, President Obama signed an Executive Order on November 1st, 2013 establishing a Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience to advise the Administration on how the Federal Government can respond to the needs of communities nationwide that are dealing with the impacts of climate change. The Task Force members, which include governors, mayors, county officials, and Tribal leaders from across the country, met throughout the year and used their first-hand experiences in building climate preparedness and resilience in their communities to inform their recommendations to the Administration."
"Since taking office, President Obama has taken unprecedented action to invest in our natural resources and work with American business leaders who understand that taking action to increase environmental protections is good for the future of our planet and their bottom line. Last month, the White House announced that 81 companies from all 50 states signed the American Business Act on Climate Pledge to commit to reducing emissions and support a strong international climate agreement."
"To ensure communities are better prepared for the impacts of climate change today and tomorrow, we continue to ensure that we are making decisions based on the latest science and data, we are responding to community-driven priorities, we are doing all that we can to serve vulnerable communities, and we are collaborating with partners to maximize impact. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Federal agencies incorporated the best available science and data, including sea level rise projections and climate resilience, into project planning and design."
FACT SHEET: National Disaster Resilience Competition
Executive Order — Enhancing Coordination of National Efforts in the Arctic
FACT SHEET: Building community resilience by strengthening America’s natural resources and supporting green infrastructure
Federal agencies are partnering with states, tribes, local governments and diverse stakeholders on innovative approaches to restore urban waters, promote sustainable water supplies, and develop new incentives for farmers to protect clean water.
Resilience AmeriCorps Announces Ten Cities for Its Pilot Program to Support Communities in Building Capacity and Technical Support for Climate Resilience
A Call to Action to Advance Climate Education and Literacy
Climate education and literacy are a critical part of this STEM skillset and are particularly important for building a 21st-century workforce, where tomorrow’s community leaders, city planners, and entrepreneurs have the information, knowledge, and training to make sound decisions and grow businesses in the context of a changing climate.
Progress Report: Highlighting Federal Actions Addressing the Recommendations of the State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience
Using Green Infrastructure to Enhance Coastal Resilience
This new resilience standard will help ensure taxpayer dollars are well spent on infrastructure that can better withstand the impacts of flooding. Agencies will have the flexibility to choose among different approaches to apply the resilience standard — by using the best methods informed by the best available, actionable climate science; by building two or three feet, depending on how critical the structure is, above the 100-year flood level; or by building above the 500-year flood level.
FACT SHEET: National Disaster Resilience Competition:
The United States is undergoing a rapid energy transformation, particularly in the power sector. Booming natural gas production, declining costs for renewable energy, increases in energy efficiency, flattening electricity demand, and updated clean air standards are changing the way electricity is generated and used across the country. These trends are producing cleaner air and healthier communities, and spurring new jobs and industries. At the same time, they are impacting workers and communities who have relied on the coal industry as a source of good jobs and economic prosperity, particularly in Appalachia, where competition with other coal basins provides additional pressure. To help these communities adapt to the changing energy landscape and build a better future the President’s FY 2016 Budget is proposing the POWER Plus (POWER+) Plan.
Remarks of the President at Signing of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009
"And that is what this bill does from coast to coast. It protects treasured places from the Appalachians of Virginia and West Virginia to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; from the canyons of Idaho to the sandstone cliffs of Utah; from the Sierra Nevadas in California to the Badlands of Oregon. It designates more than 2 million acres across nine states as wilderness; almost as much as was designated over the past eight years combined. It creates thousands of miles of new scenic, historic, and recreational trails, cares for our historic battlefields, strengthens our National Park System. It safeguards more than 1,000 miles of our rivers, protects watersheds and cleans up polluted groundwater, defends our oceans and Great Lakes, and will revitalize our fisheries, returning fish to rivers that have not seen them in decades."
How To Tackle Illegal Fishing
"Today in Boston, NOAA and the State Department unveiled the final action plan of the President’s Task Force on Combating IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud. The plan lays out aggressive next steps for implementing the recommendations issued by the Task Force in December, and includes measures to create and expand domestic partnerships to detect black market fishing and seafood fraud, strengthen enforcement, and develop a traceability program to track seafood from harvest to entry into U.S. commerce, beginning with the species most at risk for trafficking. The plan also outlines how the U.S. will work with international partners to address IUU fishing and seafood fraud, including through the Administration’s work to secure historic and enforceable environmental provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)."
The proclamation expands the existing Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, one of the most pristine tropical marine environments in the world, to six times its current size, resulting in 370,000 square nautical miles (490,000 square miles) of protected area around these tropical islands and atolls in the south-central Pacific Ocean. Expanding the Monument will more fully protect the deep coral reefs, seamounts, and marine ecosystems unique to this part of the world, which are also among the most vulnerable areas to the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification.
In the Everglades alone, the Administration has invested $2.2 billion in restoration efforts, with the President’s 2016 Budget proposing nearly $240 million more. In addition to protecting the primary source of drinking water for more than a third of Florida’s population, these efforts are helping ensure that the Florida Everglades – a major driver of the local economy – are resilient to effects of climate change like saltwater intrusion and invasive species.
Thanks to the strong conservation efforts of various western leaders, the Greater Sage-Grouse no longer requires protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)
In 2014, beekeepers reported losing about 40% of honey bee colonies, threatening the viability of their livelihoods and the essential pollination services their bees provide to agriculture. Monarch butterflies, too, are in jeopardy. The number of overwintering monarchs in Mexico’s forests has declined by 90% or more over the past two decades, placing the iconic annual North American Monarch migration at risk.
President Obama is committed to giving every kid the chance to explore America’s great outdoors and unique history. That’s why he launched the Every Kid in a Park initiative, which calls on each of our agencies to help get all children to visit and enjoy the outdoors and inspire a new generation of Americans to experience their country’s unrivaled public lands and waters. Starting in September of 2015, every fourth-grader in the nation will receive an “Every Kid in a Park” pass that’s good for free admission to all of America’s federal lands and waters — for them and their families — for a full year.
Executive Order — Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration
These accomplishments are improving the air that our children breathe while reducing childhood asthma attacks, reducing premature deaths, and helping communities prepare for the impacts of climate change we can no longer avoid — particularly in low-income communities most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. They are creating new, good paying jobs for American workers and new economic opportunities for American businesses, and driving innovation so that America can lead the clean energy economy of the 21st century.
