The Biden administration has made a bid to support both clean energy and jobs for young people with the creation of the American Climate Corps. The announcement was greeted with "excitement and hope" by Kayla Jacobs, program manager of youth mobilization at Catholic Climate Covenant. "Initiatives like this are one of many steps that are needed for a sustainable and just future," she said.

As President Biden urged global cooperation at the U.N. to combat climate change, U.S. Catholic groups are calling on his administration to use debt relief to help countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The United Nations held its first-ever "Climate Ambition Summit" Sept. 20 — a conference that included 41 countries, but excluded both the United States and China because the U.N. invited only leaders from nations with concrete plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.