Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand announced a climate change proposal that would cost $10 trillion over the next decade in public and private funding.
In a post published to Medium on Thursday, the New York senator said her “Climate Change Moonshot Plan” would bring the U.S. to net-zero carbon and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Gillibrand also vowed to rejoin the Paris climate agreement on her first day in office and take “immediate action” to enact the Green New Deal.
“Climate change is the single greatest threat to humanity we’ve ever faced, but we can’t react with fear,” Gillibrand wrote.
The presidential hopeful promised to hold polluters “responsible for the messes they make” by levying an excise tax on fossil fuel production to produce $100 billion per year specifically to combat climate change.
Gillibrand also proposed a $52 per metric ton tax on carbon to drive companies toward investment in renewable energy and away from fossil fuels. She calculated that the revenue from the carbon tax would create $200 billion annually, which would fund the country’s move toward renewable energy.
Her plan aims to build a green jobs economy, and she promised to start a “green jobs recovery fund” to help displaced workers find new jobs once the fossil fuel industry is eliminated.
Gillibrand also pointed out the importance of rural communities and outlined a proposal to fortify rural infrastructure to the effects of climate change. She stated she would invest $100 billion in assembling an efficient energy grid vital to clean energy distribution and added that she wants to lead a clean energy “space race.”
Reiterating that “climate change is the most serious threat to humanity today,” she insisted, “We need immediate and bold action to address it before it’s too late.”
Gillibrand is set to appear at the second round of the 2020 Democratic presidential debates in Detroit next week. Recent poll averages show her campaign is far behind the leading contenders, polling at less than one percent, according to RealClearPolitics.
