Climate Week NYC 2024 | U.S. Climate Alliance | The U.S. Climate Alliance launched the Governors’ Climate-Ready Workforce Initiative to grow career pathways in climate and clean energy fields, strengthen workforce diversity, and jointly train 1 million new registered apprentices by 2035 across the Alliance’s states and territories.

Climate Week NYC 2024 – Building a Climate-Ready Workforce

The U.S. Climate Alliance launched the Governors’ Climate-Ready Workforce Initiative to grow career pathways in climate and clean energy fields, strengthen workforce diversity, and jointly train 1 million new registered apprentices by 2035 across the Alliance’s states and territories.
September 23, 2024
10:30 am
New York, NY | Livestream

U.S. Climate Alliance governors and Biden-Harris leadership convened in New York City during Climate Week NYC 2024 to launch the Governors’ Climate-Ready Workforce Initiative, a new effort to grow career pathways in climate and clean energy fields and strengthen workforce diversity.

 

Under this Initiative, Alliance states and territories will collaborate to collectively support 1 million new workers in completing Registered Apprenticeship programs across the coalition by 2035. These programs, registered with the U.S. Department of Labor or federally approved State Apprenticeship Agencies, provide an especially valuable and proven career pathway, empowering workers to earn while they learn in key climate-ready occupations and industries. 

The announcement was made at a Climate Week NYC event featuring Alliance co-chairs New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, founding member Washington Governor Jay Inslee, and White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. 

Alliance members will also advance a series of collective goals aimed at strengthening and expanding pathways into a wide variety of climate-ready professions critical to building a clean, equitable, and resilient net-zero future. The Initiative’s goals include boosting job quality and ensuring climate-ready employment pathways lead to good-paying, high-quality jobs; expanding opportunities for workers from underrepresented and underserved communities; and promoting the use of stackable and portable credentials in climate-ready fields to build transferable skills, support reskilling and upskilling, and strengthen workers’ economic mobility.  

To advance sector-specific strategies, Alliance members will also work together through new multi-state cohorts focused on in-demand, climate-ready fields. These cohorts will provide a platform for states and territories to increase collaboration, share evidence-based practices, engage experts and stakeholders, and develop sectoral workforce solutions that can be scaled across the country. 

Watch The Full Event

 

Participants 

  • New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (Alliance co-chair)  
  • New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (Alliance co-chair)  
  • Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (Alliance executive committee and founding member)  
  • Assistant to the President & National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi  
  • U.S. Climate Alliance Executive Director Casey Katims  
In The News
  • Politico Pro: Governors launch new effort to bolster clean energy workforce [September 23, 2024] 
  • The Hill: 22 states want to employ 1 million people in climate apprenticeships by 2035 [September 24, 2024] 
  • Bloomberg Law News: Governors to Enlist 1 Million New Clean Job Apprentices by 2035 [September 23, 2024] 
  • Albuquerque Journal: Governor orders state agencies to support climate-related workforce pipeline [September 23, 2024] 
  • The Daily Gazette: Hochul joins U.S. Climate Alliance’s Governors’ Climate-Ready Workforce Initiative [September 24, 2024] 
  • KNKX: Inslee and governors of 23 states launch ‘climate-ready workforce’ initiative [September 24, 2024] 
Tags
2024 Climate Week Event Just Transition & Equity