New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is proposing $10 trillion in public and private funding over the next decade to combat climate change and bring the US to net-zero carbon and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
In her plan released Thursday, Gillibrand promises to enact the Green New Deal, a progressive policy, rejoin the Paris climate agreement on her first day in office and lead a 21st century clean energy international “space race.”
“Climate change is the most serious threat to humanity today, and we need immediate and bold action to address it before it’s too late,” the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate said in a Medium post Thursday, adding, “Climate action should be this generation’s moonshot.”
Her plan would phase out fossil fuels and end fracking on public lands.
Gillibrand joins a handful of other Democratic presidential contenders who have released comprehensive proposals to combat climate change amid the party approaching the issue with new urgency. A recent CNN poll showed that combating climate change is among the most pressing issues on the minds of Democratic voters ahead of the 2020 election.
Her plan includes a carbon tax of $52 per metric ton “to steer companies away from fossil fuels and toward investment in clean and renewable energy.” Gillibrand says she will invest the $200 billion in revenue in America’s transition to renewable energy.
Gillibrand aims to build a green jobs economy, giving displaced workers priority consideration for those types of employment, and providing union protections and prevailing wages for clean energy jobs.
Her plan would also spend $100 billion upgrading the energy grid across rural communities and prioritize climate investments in low-income communities and communities of color.
“We must aggressively combat climate change not because it is easy, but because it is hard,” Gillibrand said, mirroring John F. Kennedy’s 1962 “moon speech” delivered at Rice University.