Bernie Sanders speaks during the SC Democratic Convention in Columbia, S.C., June 22, 2019. (Randall Hill/Reuters)

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Thursday released his massive climate change plan, a more detailed version of the Green New Deal, which he said will address the “global emergency” of climate change and create 20 million news jobs.

“The scientific community is telling us in no uncertain terms that we have less than 11 years left to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy,” the Vermont senator wrote. “The climate crisis is not only the single greatest challenge facing our country; it is also our single greatest opportunity to build a more just and equitable future, but we must act immediately.”


“When we are in the White House, we will launch the decade of the Green New Deal, a 10-year mobilization to avert climate catastrophe,” Sanders said.

The $16.3 trillion program will create 20 million “good paying, union jobs” in a number of fields, including steel and auto manufacturing, construction, renewable power plants, sustainable agriculture, engineering, and public land preservation, the Sanders campaign promised.

The decade-long project aims for a total transition to renewable energy for electricity and transportation by 2030 and complete decarbonization in the U.S. by 2050.


The project would invest $16.3 trillion public investment towards efforts to combat climate change, a plan meant to mirror “the mobilization of resources made during the New Deal and WWII.” Sanders’ plan would also $200 billion towards the international Green Climate Fund. Sanders would also invest $40 billion in a Climate Justice Resiliency Fund, which would help “under-resourced groups,” communities of color, Native Americans, those with disabilities, children and the elderly to “recover from and prepare for” the effects of climate change.


Sanders also promises to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, which the Trump administration withdrew from in 2017, and declare climate change a national emergency.

The two-time presidential candidate, currently polling behind frontrunner Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren, earlier this year signed onto a version of the sweeping Green New Deal, introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

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