White House Press Call by Senior Adviser to the President and Director of Communications Ben LaBolt, National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi, and Senior Adviser to the President for International Climate Policy John Podesta Previewing Climate Week Speech
Via Teleconference
9:47 A.M. EDT
MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ: Hi. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today’s press call to preview President Biden’s speech at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum tomorrow and on the pre- — and on the Biden-Harris administration’s historic efforts to combat climate change.
As a reminder, this call will be on the record and embargoed until today at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
The call will begin with on-the-record remarks from Senior Adviser to the President and White House Director of Communications Ben LaBolt, White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi, and Senior Adviser to the President for International Climate Policy John Podesta.
Afterwards, we will have an — a question-and-answer period.
With that, I will turn it over to Ben.
MR. LABOLT: Thanks, Angelo, and good morning, everybody.
President Biden is fresh off his Quad Summit, where he showcased his continued leadership on the world stage by bringing our allies together to cooperate on — on major cross-border issues. He just delivered a major speech last Thursday on the economic progress we’ve seen under — under this administration. And later today, he’s heading to New York to the U.N. General Assembly.
He’s got a busy schedule in New York, and you’ll see him lay out his vision for continued U.S. leadership on the world stage, including renewed cooperation to address shared global challenges such as confronting the climate crisis.
And as the president continues to sprint to the finish line, tomorrow, as part of Climate Week, he’ll deliver remarks highlighting his and Vice President Harris’ leadership to tackle the climate crisis.
His speech tomorrow at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum will showcase just how transformational this administration has been in helping to meet all of our climate, conservation, and clean energy goals — from reducing emissions and moving in the long term to a net-zero economy, to mobilizing private-sector investments in domestic manufacturing, to protecting our lands and waters, and so much more.
And of course, through each of those important goals, also making significant in pro- — progress along the way to lower families’ energy costs; create good-paying union job; and ultimately leave for our children and grandchildren a stronger, healthier planet.
Ali and John will share a bit more about the president’s domestic and international climate legacy in just a moment, but I want to take a moment to highlight how important the stakes are and why the president’s efforts have been essential in making sure we stay on track for our climate goals.
If, as the science demands, we are going to meet the president’s goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2050 and of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, then we’ve got to keep the pedal to the metal on our climate efforts. We cannot afford to delay or to go back.
We’re seeing the impacts the climate crisis is having on our communities every day. Yet as cities are flooding or on fire or under extreme heat watches or trapped in a cloud of smog, many congressional Republicans continue to deny the very existence of climate change.
And it’s not just talk. Congressional Republicans are taking action right now that would roll back investments in climate, clean energy, and public health.
In this session alone, congressional Republicans’ efforts to gut climate protections are being pushed through a variety of avenues, including appropriations bills, Congressional Review Act resolutions, and other legislative actions, which would have a devastating impact on families, the economy, and the environment.
From undermining clean vehicle tax credits to attacking cost-saving efficiency standards, they continue to side with special interests to keep consumer energy prices high.
During this session, congressional Republicans have advanced legislation to repeal new programs from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda that are helping families save hundreds of dollars each year on energy costs, including attacking new rebate programs for energy-efficient home upgrades and programs that support residential solar projects in low-income communities.
After the president’s historic work to enhance public health protections and strengthen pollution standards, congressional Republicans are working to weaken those protections, which would harm their constituents’ lives and livelihoods.
They’ve introduced resolutions that would roll back the administration’s rules that protect communities from coal plants’ water pollution, air pollution, and waste disposal. They’re working to overturn lifesaving rules under the Clean Air Act that reduce pollution from power plants, cars, trucks, and indus- — and industrial sources. And they’re failing to protect the health of mine workers, including by trying to block new rules that protect coal and other miners from toxic exposures.
With more than 42 million acres already conserved, President Biden is on track to conserve more lands and waters than any modern president has in four years. But congressional Republicans are attempting to roll back protections for our nation’s outdoor treasures and open up our lands and waters to increased irresponsible development.
They’re trying to eliminate presidential authority to establish national monuments altogether. They’re also trying to dismantle President Biden’s America the Beautiful initiative, which is supporting locally led conservation efforts across the country, and to overturn the administration’s Public Lands Rule that will help conserve wildlife habitat, restore places impacted by wildfire and drought, expand outdoor recreation, and guide thoughtful and balanced development.
They’re supporting legislation and other appropriations vehicles that would undo protections for 13 million acres of special areas in the Western Arctic and dismantle efforts to protect the U.S. Arctic Ocean and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from new oil and gas leasing.
The Biden-Harris administration successfully finalized the first updates in decades to hold oil and gas companies accountable and ensure they provide fair returns to taxpayers, but congressional Republicans are seeking to overturn these overdue reforms.
And just to put a finer point on it: Since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, congressional Republicans have voted more than 50 times to repeal all or parts of the largest and most impactful climate legislation in history.
Yet even though most Republicans are in lock- — lockstep in this approach, some are starting to change their tune. Last month, 18 House Republicans sent a letter to Speaker Johnson asking him not to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act.
Perhaps it’s because President’s Biden’s policies are leading to more than 330,000 new clean energy jobs already created, more than half of which are in Republican-held districts.
It also might be because they’re starting to realize that jacking up families’ energy prices, weakening pollution protections, and slowing our clean energy transition are unpopular back home.
Whatever the reason, it’s obvious that the contrast between President Biden and Kamala Harris’ policies with those of congressional Republicans couldn’t be clearer.
This coming Climate Week and for every week thereafter, this president and his team will continue to work on behalf of the American people to protect our planet, lower energy costs, create good-paying jobs, and do what’s needed to ensure that our grandchildren can experience a planet with clean air and drinkable water.
And with that, I’ll turn it over to the president’s national climate adviser, Ali Zaidi.
MR. ZAIDI: Thanks so much to everybody for joining.
We are five years into what the UNFCCC declared as the “decisive decade for climate action.” Tomorrow, President Biden will deliver the decisive decade halftime report. And what he will show is how the United States has changed the playbook fundamentally — not focused on the doom and gloom, focused instead on the massive economic opportunity, a chance to build U.S. manufacturing and infrastructure, and a chance to build the American middle class.
The president will talk about what we’re seeing on the scoreboard. Since the start of the administration, 100 gigawatts of clean energy built in the United States — 25 million homes’ worth of power. You see off our coast an offshore industry, where before there was none.
In rural America, the largest investment in clean energy electrification since FDR — one in five rural Americans seeing the benefits of that clean energy.
A nuclear industry revitalized — plants that were slated to be shut down put back into use; plants retired coming back to meet surging demand.
In transportation, electric vehicles now quadrupled in sales, chargers doubled on our roads and highways, the postal service going fully electric, and all of that being made in America — batteries being made in America; anodes, cathodes, the very critical minerals necessary for tackling climate change being sourced here in the United States of America.
And, of course, we’re seeing this translate into benefits for consumers. The standards the president has finalized or more efficient appliances saving a trillion dollars for consumers over the next several decades.
And just last year, millions of Americans taking advantage of the Biden-Harris clean energy tax credits to retrofit their homes, put in upgrades that will save them money, lower utility bills and costs.
He’s done all of this while protecting the environment. As Ben noted, 42 million acres conserved by tackling the scrooge [scourge] of environmental injustice, meeting pollution where it is in fence-line communities, and delivering solutions that take effect right away.
He’s made sure that we are leaning into the manufacturing opportunity in all of this. He’s going to talk about how we invented a lot of these technologies, but over the last several years, we’ve now started to actually make these technologies — $900 billion in manufacturing.
So, you see because of these historic efforts under President Biden, Vice President Harris, capital coming off the sidelines, jobs coming back, and America leading on climate. And, you know, core to that — core to that is the president delivering on his fundamental conviction.
When he was running for office, the president often said, “When I see climate, I see jobs.” Since the beginning of his administration, he’s made that a focal point in climate. It’s what’s helped us put all these points on the board. Even today, governors will come together to announce a goal to train another million folks into registered apprenticeships that deliver on the climate workforce that we need to build this clean energy future.
Tomorrow is an opportunity to deliver that decisive decade halftime report to show the progress we’ve made, the points we put on the board, and the path ahead. And President Biden will do that eloquently and in a way, I think, that will hopefully activate and animate accelerated action not just here but around the world.
And for that, let me hand it over to my partner in all of this, the president’s international climate adviser, John Podesta.
MR. PODESTA: Thanks, Ali. And — and thanks to everyone for joining at the beginning of this action-packed Climate Week. And if you’re actually in New York, the traffic-packed Climate Week.
Over the past four years, President Biden and Vice President Harris have pursued the most ambitious and successful climate agenda in history, both domestically and internationally.
We know that the climate crisis is a global problem and that no one country alone can solve it but that U.S. leadership on this issue is critical for bringing the world together.
That’s why President Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement on day — day one. It’s why he set a bold goal to cut U.S. emissions by 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and backed that goal up with action through the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in climate and clean energy in the world, as Ali just went through. And it’s why he convened three leaders summits on climate, ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Mo- — Montreal Protocol to phase down super-polluting hydrofluorocarbons.
Over the past four years, this resurgence of U.S. leadership on global climate action has yielded real results.
We’ve raised ambition from countries and companies around the world through the Global Methane Pledge to reduce global methane emissions 30 percent by 2030, with now 158 countries and the EU signing on.
At COP28 in Dubai in December 2023, the United States successfully galvanized the world to commit, for the first time, to transition away from unabated fossil fuels; to stop building new unabated coal capacity globally; to triple renewable energy globally by 2030, to double the level of efficiency by 2030, and to triple nuclear energy by 2050.
We’ve remained focused on climate finance, which is the biggest topic of discussion at this year’s COP29 in Azerbaijan.
President Biden pledged to work with Congress to quadruple U.S. international public climate finance to over $11 billion per year by 2024. And we’re on track to deliver on that commitment. That includes over $3 billion per year for adaptation under the president’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience, or the so-called PREPARE program, which will help a half a billion people worldwide adapt to and manage climate impacts, including sea level rise, storms, droughts, and food insecurity.
The next few months are crucial for our international climate agenda — from COP16 on biodiversity in Cali to the G20 in Rio to COP29 in Baku, and, of course, this week in New York.
This week and throughout this fall, we’ll continue to work with our allies and partners around the world to raise ambitions; unlock additional climate finance from the private sector, multilateral development banks, and public sources; accelerate the deployment of clean energy by driving innovation and lowering costs; reversing and finally ending deforestation; and help more vulnerable countries and communities adapt to a changing climate.
Here’s the bottom line: Thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris, we’re on the right path here in the U.S. and around the world. We have to accelerate our progress toward our collective climate goals, and I think the president will be calling on other leaders of the world, as he did over the weekend in the new announcements on clean cooling and the clean energy industrial fellowship we entered into with India, to get that job done.
Thank you. And I’ll turn it back over to Angelo.
MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ: Thanks, John. And we will move to the question-and-answer portion. Please use the “raise hand” function on Zoom, and we will call on you. As you are called on, please identify yourself and your outlet.
Okay, we will begin with Lisa. You should be unmuted now.
Q Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for doing this this morning.
John, you mentioned that the president will be calling on — on other leaders. You know, this is a very international audience this week. Already, countries have seen the United States leave and join and leave and join global efforts to fight climate change. What will the president’s message be to world leaders who are worried about what a Trump administration would bring on climate and maybe don’t know whether the U.S. can be trusted to be a long-term partner?
I guess, related, do you expect President Biden to — to speak directly about former President Trump?
MR. PODESTA: Lisa, you know, in my current role, I can’t talk about politics. (Laughs.) But I think it’s clear that the track record from the previous administration vers- — which pulled out of Paris, abandoned the — the partnership that we had around the globe, reversed a number of actions that President Obama had taken on climate change versus the record that we just laid out is clearly of concern and interest to people around the world.
All I can tell you is the president has demonstrated that you can produce strong economic growth, create good-paying jobs, reach all areas of the country in this — in this task of decarbonizing our economy.
And that’s the message I think he’s sending to global re- — leaders: This is doable. We can invest in the — these new technologies. We can put people to work doing the work that needs to be done, and it’s going to be good for your publics.
So, I think that in — in his speech to — to UNGA, he will, I think, reflect on that record, and I’m sure the — the alternatives will be implicit.
MR. ZAIDI: Look, what I’d add to that — this is Ali — is you’ve seen the politics of climate inaction deteriorate in Congress. House Republicans have put up nearly 50 votes to roll back President Biden and Vice President Harris’ historic climate efforts. They failed. They failed even within their own caucus: Now a dozen and a half members calling on their own leadership to wrap up these efforts, to go in a U-turn direction, because they see the economic case for climate action.
Part of the reason the president has been successful — and as he speaks to this tomorrow, he will point out — is this new formula on climate action, which is focused on driving investment in U.S. manufacturing and U.S. infrastructure, and that has resulted in unprecedented and successful job creation all across the country in blue districts and in red.
So, the politics of inaction are deteriorating. The case for a U-turn is weak and fragile and falling apart. But the haste to go bold and accelerate climate action, we’re seeing the results from that; that’s strengthening.
And, you know, Lisa, you mentioned, there are a lot of leaders from around the world here in New York. There are also a lot of leaders from industry and big investors here in New York, and they’re paying attention to one thing and one thing only, and that is: In the United States, the case for investing in clean energy has never been stronger. The economics for climate action are irresistible here in the United States. And that’s going to cascade around the world as we accelerate progress in this decisive decade.
MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ: Thanks, Ali. We will go to Kemi next. You should be unmuted now.
Q Hello. Can you guys hear me? Hello?
MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ: Yes.
Q Okay. Thank you. Sorry. En route to New York.
I wanted to ask if you can talk about the multilateral (inaudible) boosting climate financing for developing countries as well as how the U.S., the administration will work with China, the number one polluters in the world. As — and your initiative also working with African nations.
Thank you.
MR. PODESTA: Well, thanks — thanks for the question. I — at the bilateral level, I laid out a — at the front end of my remarks, the president’s commitment to increasing climate finance across the board and reach communities across the globe.
We’ve succeeded in — in meeting the targets that the president did at — in his UNGA speech in 2021. I want to underscore that. That’s where he said we will quadruple our climate finance from the historically high level that President Obama produced. It was actually substantially more than that if you compare it to the last years under President Trump. And we’re on track to do that.
Where I’m engaged in events here to try to track additional private-sector investment into the adaptation space, noting — I noted the PREPARE program that the president has put forward, which is going to provide a — help and service to half a billion people across the globe.
We’re engaged, I think, with the — the i- — the discussion right now to increase the national cumulative qualified goal that’s, as I noted, part of what’s most important on the agenda in Baku. Those conversations are continuing, but we’ve seen a substantial increase in climate finance coming through the multilateral development banks and other sources.
It’s going to take the effort of all of us to go from the billions of dollars of — hundreds of billions of dollars of public support that we’ve seen to, really, the trillion dollars of need that are necessary to build sustainable energy systems across the globe.
And so, I think, again, in his conversations with — with global leaders, he hosted President Ruto of Kenya earlier this year, created a commitment to a bilateral partnership with the government of Kenya to build out supply chains there. We’re working with India and Tanzania to do the same thing across new supply chains in Africa.
So, I think the president is r- — is quite focused on this and will get a chance to speak to it both in the meetings that he’s holding on the side as well as in his main UNGA speech.
Q Okay. If I can just quickly follow up on that. A lot of these developing countries are looking into carbon market. What is your response? What is your view regarding that?
MR. PODESTA: You know, earlier this summer, we issued a joint statement from the U.S. government on our views on the fact that those high-integrity carbon markets are a potentially strong source of finance for countries both to decarbonize the power sector. Secretary Kerry did a tremendous work on creating a new instrument, if you will, in that space as well as in — in agriculture and forestry.
But as we noted in that statement, there’s — there needs to be high integrity both on behalf of the sellers of carbon credits as well as on behalf of buyers in order to make these — these markets work and — and see those — that ability for carbon finance to flow through that channel. Without that, I think the market and — and I think we saw this in the last couple of years — it begins to lose faith that those — that the emissions reductions are real. In which case, I think people back off from making the commitments.
So, I think it’s really critical to make sure that these markets are — have strong integrity, and we laid out the principles to make that happen.
MR. ZAIDI: I just want to add a little bit on how domestic action is, I think, enabling more ambition around the world.
First, there has been analysis, including from the Boston Consulting Group, on the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act in terms of technology cost reduction that actually improve the odds of scale-up around the world — everything from battery technology to clean hydrogen production through electrolyzers.
That technology is being de-risked as a result of the generational investment that President Biden has marshaled to take on the climate crisis here in the United States.
That’s going to have very significant implications around the world. One modeling projection done by the Rhodium Group shows that for every ton reduced here, we will see two or three reduced around the world, again, as the result of that technology de-risking.
The second is the platform de-risking. John talked about the voluntary carbon markets and the principles we laid out earlier this summer to help high-integrity scale-up of that platform.
The investment the United States is making, for example, through the Department of Agriculture in measurement, monitoring, and verification regimes, or through the EPA and the Department of Energy in the utilization of satellite data to track methane leaks from industrial sources — those investments in satellite, in harnessing machine learning and artificial intelligence to take on climate change — those platform investments will de-risk those platforms for the rest of the world and I think help bring additional resources to the Global South.
And then there’s the role of the capital markets more broadly. In the United States, we are building muscle memory around new asset classes, and that’s going to accrue benefits to capital formation and project development all around the world.
So, look, there is the — there is the effort, I think, underway by G20 countries. The*28:59 — when the president was out at the last G20, he said, “I passed an Inflation Reduction Act. You should copycat that.” So, there are a lot of countries that are downloading the U.S. playlist on how to jam out on climate.
But there’s a second piece of it, which is the actions we’re taking here in the United States are de-risking technologies, they’re de-risking platforms, and they’re building the muscle memory to accelerate capital formation project development around the world.
Obviously, that all complements the very important development finance and multilateral work — work John talked about, but I do think this work domestically is going to echo around the world.
MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ: Thanks, Ali.
And our final question will come from Robin. You should be unmuted now.
Q Hi. Can you hear me?
MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ: Yes.
Q Thanks so much for taking my call. I wondered if you could tell us — I know the president told his Cabinet to “sprint to the finish.” I wonder if you can tell us what that’s going to mean on climate, if there’s anything else we can expect — big announcements on climate before the end of the term, and also how he’s thinking about climate when he’s approaching his legacy?
MR. ZAIDI: Robin, I think the president is thinking about climate the same way he has been from day one. When he thinks climate, he thinks jobs. And I know that sounds simple, but I think that’s been the driver of the political economy and the investment case around the country, and that continues to be the case.
You know, you’ll — you’ll see from the administration what you’ve seen from day one: a concerted focus on a sector-by-sector basis, each part of the economy.
In terms of developing new standards and rules that provide certainty to business and improve the investment climate around clean energy technologies, you will continue to see robust implementation from our agencies on the infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act. On the broader investment agenda, making sure that those investments are turning in to impacts on the ground.
And you’ll see us do the important work of blocking and tackling to make sure our projects are getting built. Permitting, citing execution has been a focal point for the Biden-Harris administration from day one.
You know, this Cabinet meeting, the president talked about sprinting through the finish line, making sure that we’re building an irreversible momentum behind climate action. But I remember the last Cabinet meeting when he reminded the Cabinet that these laws, these standards, these investments were only as good as the impact they were making on the ground. So, he continues to be relentlessly focused on implementation, on execution, on getting things built.
And that goes to the point I made at the top. This is no longer a theoretical playbook. You could see it as points on the scoreboard today: A hundred gigawatts of clean energy built in the United States under the Biden-Harris administration. That’s going to be our focus. That’s where we continue to spend our time.
MR. FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ: Thanks, Ali.
And that is all the time we have today. Thank you, again, to our speakers and to all of you for joining.
As a reminder, this call and the materials you all received over email or will receive over email will be embargoed until 1:00 P.M. Eastern today.
Thanks again for joining us.
10:20 A.M. EDT
