White House to Hold First-Ever Climate Resilience Summit

The Biden administration will hold its first-ever summit on climate resilience on Thursday, the latest part of the White House's efforts to combat climate change.

The White House Climate Resilience Summit is part of a commitment Biden made in June where his administration will announce a framework to tackle the impacts of climate change. Representatives from more than 25 states, territories, and Tribal Nations will be in attendance.

As part of the summit, participants will develop a roadmap for the administration’s National Climate Resilience Framework, which lays out objectives to align with investments to protect communities from the effects of climate change. The administration will also award more than $500 million in dedicated funding for new actions for climate resilience.

As various parts of the country experienced extreme weather conditions throughout the summer, President Joe Biden made several speeches outlining what his administration is doing to tackle climate change and extreme weather. He recently announced the American Climate Corps to train young people to work on projects that tackle climate change.

Biden said Americans across the country are experiencing the “devastating impacts of climate change.”

 “But the worsening impacts are not inevitable,” Biden said in a statement. “My Administration is leading the most ambitious climate agenda in history, and we’re investing in the people and places who’ve not only been hit the hardest but who are also leading us forward.”

Biden said that he directed the framework to build a roadmap for his administrations actions on climate.

“When I think of climate, I think of jobs, innovation, and turning peril into progress – and by working together, that’s exactly what we are going to do,” Biden said in a statement.

According to a fact sheet from the White House, the framework includes:

White House climate policy advisor Ali Zaidi said the summit is significant because it marks the first time an administration has held a major convening like this focused solely on climate resilience.

“It demonstrates the importance of the flow as the President has placed not just on climate generally, not just on attacking the root causes of the climate crisis, but also in helping our communities prepare for these extreme climate disasters, which unfortunately are becoming more frequent, more severe, in every corner of the country,” Zaidi said in a statement.