Buttigieg would use Defense Department to fight climate change

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday unveiled a climate change plan that calls for the United States to have net-zero emissions by 2050.

The South Bend, Ind., mayor’s plan would create a Climate Watch Floor established within the Department of Defense in order to address what Buttigieg called “the security challenge of our time.” 

{mosads}Buttigieg said the climate plan would create 3 million jobs through focusing on clean energy and infrastructure over a 10-year period. The plan also creates a new senior climate security role within the Defense Department.

The proposal also calls for “a bold and achievable Green New Deal,” the climate resolution championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

CNN noted that a campaign spokesman said Buttigieg’s plan would cost as much as $2 trillion.

“To discourage the pollution that accelerates climate change at home and abroad, we’ll set a price on carbon — and offset the cost to consumers by giving that money back as a dividend to working Americans,” he wrote in an op-ed published by CNN Wednesday. Buttigieg will appear Wednesday evening in the network’s climate change town hall.

The release of Buttigieg’s climate change plan follows those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, who both released their plans Tuesday ahead of the CNN town hall.

“We’re running out of time. Experts tell us that we have 10 years to get on the right path, or global warming will reach catastrophic levels by 2050,” Buttigieg wrote. “But the timeline that compels us to act isn’t set by Congress—it’s being dictated by science.”