Biden’s climate plans
White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy told reporters on Air Force One that Biden’s new executive actions will include funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help states build cooling centers that cope to excessive heat and other impacts of climate change.
#InPhotos l Europe fights forest fires
greece on fire
Firefighters work to extinguish a forest fire in the Drafi agglomeration, north of Athens. Greek civil protection called for the evacuation of eight villages at the foot of Mount Penteli, north of Athens. threatened by a great fire.
Aris Oikonomou / AFP
wildfires
An Air Tractor AT-802F “Fire Boss” aircraft participates in firefighting operations at Gesteira de Baixo in Pombal, Portugal. Forest fires have swept through the central part of the country amid temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius.
Octavio Passos/©Getty Images
Firefighters struggle and tire
This photograph shows firefighters resting on the ground after spending the night on duty in the mountains in Alvaiazere, Portugal. Forest fires have swept through the central part of the country amid temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius.
Octavio Passos/©Getty Images
Without truce
In this aerial view, firefighters contain a bushfire that has engulfed nearby homes in the Shiregreen area of Sheffield on July 20, 2022 in Sheffield, England. Multiple fires broke out across the UK yesterday and today as the UK experienced an unprecedented heatwave. Temperatures in many places reached 40°C and higher.
Christopher Furlong/©Getty Images
Tourists witness
Tourists look at the plume of dark smoke over the Dune of Pilat from Cap Ferret due to a wildfire in a forest near La Teste, southwestern France. A fire in progress since the afternoon of July 12, 2022 has burned 12,000 hectares of pine forest near La Teste (Gironde), about 40 km southwest of Bordeaux, causing the evacuation of 5 camping areas.
Olivier Morin/AFP
Fires in Zamora, Spain
Isabel Infantes/Reuters
They put their life at risk
Firefighters work at the site of a forest fire as Spain experiences its second heat wave of the year, in Faramontanos de Tabara, Spain, on July 19, 2022.
Borja Suarez/Reuters
A work that has no end
A firefighter works to extinguish a forest fire during a heat wave near Thiendorf, north of Dresden, Germany, on July 19, 2022.
Matthias Rietschel/Reuters
FEMA’s $2.3 billion funding is the largest ever awarded to its Building Resilient Communities and Infrastructure program, the White House said.
A White House official said the new funding could expand flood control, shore up utilities, modernize buildings and help low-income families pay heating and cooling costs.
Biden will also announce a new permit to the national offshore wind industry. The administration has identified 700,000 acres for potential offshore wind development in the Persian Gulf of Mexico, the White House said.
McCarthy said Biden will lay out more executive action on climate in the coming weeks.
obstacles
On Tuesday, John Kirby, who coordinates Biden’s communication on strategic issues, insisted that climate change was a “national security” issue that “affects our infrastructure.”