The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an economic crisis in the United States. Tens of millions of people are out of work, one in three families with children cannot afford adequate food, and three million small businesses expect to close their doors permanently.
To tackle this economic crisis, this report proposes a path forward – with a bold economic renewal plan that would sustain jobs for more than 9 million people every year for the next 10 years while building an economy that fosters cleaner air and water, higher wages, healthier communities, greater equity, and a more stable climate. The sectoral breakdown of the 9 million jobs per year is as follows:
- 4.6 million jobs per year to upgrade our infrastructure for clean water, clean transportation, and clean energy;
- 3.2 million jobs per year to expand renewable energy;
- More than 700,000 jobs per year to increase energy efficiency; and
- More than 500,000 jobs per year to restore our lands and invest in regenerative agriculture.
In addition to simultaneously tackling the mutually reinforcing public health, joblessness, inequity, and climate change crises, this plan would reduce air pollution. It would also counteract the gross levels of inequity that the COVID crisis has magnified by ensuring that those hardest hit get priority access to economic and environmental benefits. While putting people back to work, this plan also would enable a 45 percent reduction in climate pollution by 2030, in line with targets set by climate scientists.