California Gov. Newsom Announces Climate Corps Agreement With Five States

“We can’t go it alone in tackling the climate crisis. ... we’re making climate action a reality in communities representing millions of Americans,”Newsom said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks as he attends the Climate Ambition Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, on Sept. 20, 2023. The event, held during Climate Week NYC and the UN General Assembly, seeks to gather support for global agreements aimed at phasing out the use of fossil fuels. Kena Betancur/Getty Images

As part of the Climate Week festivities in New York, the governors of Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Utah joined California Gov. Gavin Newsom to announce the establishment of so-called Climate Corps programs in each state.

“We can’t go it alone in tackling the climate crisis. With these five states launching their own Climate Corps, we’re making climate action a reality in communities representing millions of Americans,” Mr. Newsom said in a press release Sept. 20. “Together, we’re mobilizing and organizing citizen climate action at a scale never seen before—and now we’ll begin to see its impact across the nation.”

The recent announcement came the same day Mr. Newsom spoke during the U.N. Climate Summit regarding the investments and steps California is taking to address climate-related issues and coincided with a White House announcement regarding the establishment of the American Climate Corps—meant to “put more than 20,000 young people on career pathways in the growing fields of clean energy, conservation and climate resilience.”

Representing bipartisan political ideologies, the five new states include more than 20 percent of the country’s population.

California, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, and Washington had already founded such programs, bringing the total to 10 nationwide.

Climate Corps are designed to create fellowships where participants can help with projects including wildfire resiliency, composting and organic waste activities, edible food recovery, and urban greening—while earning up to $30,000 for full-time participation that can be applied as scholarships or to pay off student loans, according to the press release.

Such efforts are funded by philanthropic means, private donations, and through AmeriCorps—a federal agency dedicated to providing funding and support to community service and volunteerism.

Established in 2020, the California Climate Action Corps was the first of its kind, bringing together community members from across the state to assist with a variety of projects. The group is holding a Climate Action Day Sept. 23 at Martha McLean Park in Riverside, California, as a community service event to improve quality of life and access to green spaces.

President Joe Biden visited California in June to discuss the Climate Action Corps, among other things.

“We’re taking the most aggressive climate action ever, focused on mitigation,” Mr. Biden said during the trip. “What we’re seeing here is an amazing success story: how we can make our communities more climate resilient. It matters.”