2020 Dem candidate Buttigieg endorses Green New Deal

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said Sunday he endorses the Green New Deal introduced by progressive members of Congress.

“Yes, I think it’s the right beginning,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Buttigieg, who is the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and the youngest candidate running for president, is the latest 2020 candidate to sign onto the climate change resolution.

Mayor @PeteButtigieg says he supports a Green New Deal: “It matches a sense of urgency about that problem of climate change with a sense of opportunity around what the solutions might represent.” https://t.co/2rxqybxhRP #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/NMNZnhkVFq

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) February 10, 2019

{mosads}Climate change is expected to be a key issue in the upcoming election. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in the House and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in the Senate introduced a resolution last week that would push the U.S. to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within the next 10 years.

A number of announced and potential 2020 candidates, including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), have endorsed the resolution. 

However, the resolution has also earned bipartisan pushback from critics who say it would be expensive and practically infeasible. 

Buttigieg on Sunday called the plan a “framework” and “more a plan than a fully articulated set of policies.”

“We’re being disrupted by climate change … This is a national emergency,” he said. “I think the elegance from a policy perspective of the concept of the Green New Deal is it matches a sense of urgency about that problem of climate change with a sense of opportunity around what the solutions might represent.”