Sunrise Movement co-founder optimistic about Biden’s initial climate actions

Sunrise Movement Executive Director Varshini Prakash told Hill.TV that President Biden’s executive actions on climate change during his first week in office were a “breath of fresh air.”

“We saw many of the demands and policies of the youth climate movement in this slew of executive orders in this first week,” said Prakash, a co-founder of Sunrise, a youth-focused environmental advocacy group.

Prakash cited “the creation, or at least the intent to create, a civilian climate corps,” which she said is “based off of the Civilian Conservation Corps of FDR’s era where they employed over 3 million people basically in the work of public works projects.”

“We could do the same thing,” she added.

In his first days in office, Biden announced that the U.S. would rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, reversing the Trump administration’s steps to exit the accord, and consider climate change to be a top national security issue.

“I think what we’re seeing is a number of actions on the executive front that represents a very strong first few steps in averting the climate crisis, and of course there’s a lot more to be done,” Prakash said.

She added that Sunrise Movement is now turning its attention to the implementation of Biden’s executive actions.