Climate change is "an enemy" comparable to Nazis, according to outgoing Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown.

"Instead of worrying about tariffs, I'd like to see the president and the Congress invest tens of billions in renewable energy, in more efficient batteries, to get us off fossil fuel as quickly as we can. I would point to the fact that it took [then-President Franklin] Roosevelt many, many years to get America willing to go into World War II and fight the Nazis. Well, we have an enemy, though different, but perhaps very much devastating in a similar way," Brown said Sunday during an interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press."

Brown will be replaced in the governor's mansion in January by Democratic Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. He said he will leave his second stint as California's chief executive in the new year not having accomplished enough to "wake up the country, wake up the world" to the problem of climate change, particularly given the record-breaking wildfires that devastated his state this year.

Brown, who may surprise political pundits by launching a fourth bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination ahead of the 2020 election, said he had also failed to convince President Trump to do more in terms of mitigation, saying Trump is "very convinced of his position" as a climate change denier.

“No, not enough, not even close, and not close in California, and we're doing more than anybody else, and not close in America or the rest of the world," Brown said. "The technology, the investment, the lifestyle changes, the land use changes, this is a revolutionary threat. And we've got to get off this idea, it's the economy, stupid. No, it's the environment. It's the ecology that we have to get on the side of. And we only do that with wisdom, with investment, and widespread collaboration and working together."