Switching to clean energy and tackling climate change is a chance to boost economies, jobs and "every part of who we are", U.S. President Joe Biden told an international climate leaders' summit last week.

And the potential benefits - from cheap, sustainable power to jobs with a future - need to be "not a luxury for the few" but instead "for all of us", Biden's national climate advisor Gina McCarthy emphasised at the virtual gathering, which drew participants from world leaders to union and business titans.

In some places, those jobs are emerging fast, with a survey by environmental business group E2 showing three times more people now work in clean energy jobs in the United States than in extracting and producing fossil fuels. 

But such opportunities aren't popping up everywhere yet, in part because the cash needed to finance a green transition is still falling short, particularly in poorer parts of the world, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told Biden's summit on Earth Day.

Funding to adapt to ever-stronger climate impacts is particularly sparse, which is creating a threat to lives, properties and economies, Fiji's economy minister warned.

He told event participants his island nation faces $9 billion in costs to move 40 whole communities out of high-risk zones, create "eco-walls" of storm-stopping mangroves, and offer new insurance and other help to those who need it.

In the United States, one way to boost green jobs might be to channel a share of new federal green spending through mayors and cities, who helped lead the way on climate action during Donald Trump's years in office, when federal climate policy froze. 

Cities are "ready to run. We're not just going to hand the ball back to the feds," said Daniel Zarrilli, chief climate policy adviser for the mayor of New York.

Who else is creating green jobs? Actor Michael Keaton, who's funding a new plant in his native Pittsburgh to manufacture building panels to replace high-carbon concrete in construction.

"If you can put people to work and have some even modest impact on climate change, why would I not want to be involved in something like this?" he told our correspondent Jack Graham.

Having tech difficulties with your online meetings? It happens to everyone - even world leaders. Check out U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Russian President Vladimir Putin and others struggling to take part in Biden's climate summit.

See you next week!

Laurie

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