Climate Corps: Skills-Based Training to Combat the Climate Crisis

• Date: 01 March 2024
• Author: Marianne Lavelle, Ken Goodson, Rola Halawanji, and Jake Pollack

3-2024 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 54 ELR 10195

DIALOGUE

CLIMATE CORPS:

SKILLS-BASED TRAINING TO COMBAT

THE CLIMATE CRISIS

SUMMARY

Last September, the Biden Administration announced the American Climate Corps, a workforce training and

service initiative with the goal of giving young people skills-based training for careers in the clean energy,

conservation, and climate resilience sectors. The initiative will offer 20,000 Americans paid training in a

variety of environmental fields, specifically prioritize equity and environmental justice, and collaborate with

federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and tr ibal, state, and local governments. On November 29, 2023,

the Environmental Law Institute hosted a panel of experts to discuss the American Climate Corps program

and existing climate corps programs across the countr y. Below, we present a transcript of that discussion,

which has been edited for style, clarity, and space considerations.

Marianne Lavelle (moderator) is a reporter and writer for

Inside Climate News.

Ken Goodson is National Director of AmeriCorps

National Civilian Community Corps.

Rola Halawanji is Program Director of Bay Area

Community Resources’ California Climate Action Corps.

Jake Pollack is a Senior Director at Strategic Energy

Innovations.

Marianne Lavelle : e American Climate Corps was

part of President Joseph Biden’s idea for addressing climate

from the very start, a nd he announced the rollout last Sep-

tember. ere are going to be some big announcements.1

One thing I want to say about Climate Corps is that people

seem to think of it as kind of a descenda nt of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps. In

some ways, the Climate Corps goes beyond Roosevelt’s

program, by dealing with a planet ary crisis and incorporat-

ing things like environmental justice into the work.

1. Fact Sheet: Biden-Harris Administration Launches American Climate

Corps to Train Young People in Clean Energy, Conservation, and Climate

Resilience Skills, Create Good-Paying Jobs and Tackle the Climate Crisis,

White House (Sept. 20, 2023), https://www.whitehouse.gov/brieng-

room/statements-releases/2023/09/20/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administra

tion-launches-american-climate-corps-to-train-young-people-in-clean-ener

gy-conservation-and-climate-resilience-skills-create-good-paying-jobs-and-

tackle-the-clima/.

I look forward to the panelists’ presentations. I want

to ask each of you to talk about what inspired you to get

involved in youth training in skills to address the cli-

mate crisis. I will start with Ken Goodson, the director of

AmeriCorps.

Ken Goodson: I serve as the director of AmeriCorps

National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), one of the

four major programs of AmeriCorps, the federal a gency for

national service and volunteering. AmeriCorps NCCC is

the one program that’s wholly administered and operated

by the federal agency. Most of what we do at AmeriCorps

is make awards and grants through our three other major

programs. NCCC is dierent.

I’ve been with AmeriCorps for a little more than a

decade. I was previously with the Peace Corps for about 15

years, starting as an environmental conser vation volunteer

before moving into sta roles that had me in six dierent

countries, ending in my hardship post, which was Wash-

ing ton, D.C.

Two things inspired me to get into this work. One, I

had an opportunity previously to work at the grassroots

level. en I also had the opportunity to work at the macro

policy level during a stint at the Millennium Challenge

Corporation. I believe that with something that is such an

existential threat, l ike climate change, you really need both

those pola r ends operating. You need t he big-picture policy

pieces, but you really do need the grassroots, hyperloca l,

civic-engaged approach as well. A nd that’s the space that I

like to be in: the hyper-grassroots.

I also nd young adults inspiring. at wa s part of the

reason I ended up with a Peace Corps career and pa rt of the

reason that I am at AmeriCorps now. e NCCC program

is for 18- to 26-year-olds. Any time I have concerns about

Author’s Note: Ken Goodson’s permission to publish this

Dialogue does not constitute an endorsement by either him

or the U.S. government of the Environmental Law Institute

or its activities.

Copyright © 2024 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.