On Monday, President Joe Biden and Governor Gavin Newsom announced a $600 million investment for climate resilience projects nationwide and an additional $67 million to help build power lines and transmission infrastructure to support California’s transition to 100% clean electricity.

This announcement emphasizes the need to accelerate these sorts of projects to fight back against climate change. 

“California’s wildfires, heat waves, and extreme swings from drought to flooding show how climate change is impacting our communities. There is no better partner in the fight against climate change than President Biden, who is making unprecedented investments and approaching this crisis with urgency,” stated Governor Newsom. “This new federal funding will support our ongoing climate action to protect our coastal communities from rising oceans and build the clean energy we need.”

Some historic investments that have been made in the state of California include California’s Climate Commitment, the $48 billion climate budget, which includes $4.1 billion in climate resilience funding:

• $1.4 billion in investments over multiple years for nature-based solutions,
• $1.6 billion in investments over multiple years to promote community resilience,
• $734 million in investments over multiple years for coastal resilience,
  • On June 1, the Coastal Conservancy awarded $78 million for climate resilience, public access, habitat restoration, and wildfire resilience projects.
• $444 million over multiple years to address extreme heat.

“Throughout our history, we’re the only nation in the world to come out of crisis stronger than we went into it. We’re doing it again here on the climate crisis. When I think of climate, I think of jobs. When I think of climate, I think of innovation. When I think of climate, I think of turning peril into progress,” stated President Biden.