Even in solidly Democratic New York City, plastic bags are still handed out with abandon and you're almost as likely to bump into someone wearing a red MAGA cap as anyone holding a reusable coffee cup. Loading But now the political tide is beginning to turn. Climate change has emerged as one of the hot issues of the Trump era and is certain to feature prominently in the 2020 presidential election. A Pew survey released in January found that 44 per cent of Americans say climate change should be a top priority for the President and Congress this year. That's still lower than issues like healthcare or terrorism, but is a dramatic increase from 26 per cent in 2011. The US economic recovery that has followed the global financial crisis has opened up space for discussions about protecting the environment. An apparent increase in natural disasters like hurricanes and bushfires in recent years has also injected a sense of urgency into the debate.

And now a newly-elected 29-year-old from the Bronx has strode onto the national stage with a bold vision to decarbonise the US economy within 10 years. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became a national celebrity last year when she upset a leading figure of the Democratic Party's establishment to win the nomination for a safe seat in New York. The demonisation of carbon dioxide is just like the demonisation of the poor Jews under Hitler. Climate change sceptic William Happer The former bartender, who identifies as a democratic socialist, is often referred to simply by her initials: AOC. During her orientation to Congress, Ocasio-Cortez participated in a climate change protest at the office of Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi.

Earlier this month, Ocasio-Cortez released a congressional resolution calling for the creation of a Green New Deal - a "10-year mobilisation" to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the US. The resolution calls for 100 per cent of the country’s electricity to be sourced from renewable and zero-emissions power, upgrading every building in the country to be more energy-efficient, and overhauling the nation’s transport system through investment in electric vehicles and high-speed rail. The resolution is non-binding, meaning that even if it passed both houses of Congress it would have no practical effect. It is aspirational in tone, short on specifics and has no price tag attached. The plan pays homage to Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, a suite of programs launched to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty during the Great Depression. Among its biggest measures was the Social Security Act, which established unemployment insurance, old-age benefits for workers and welfare support for the disabled.

The New Deal also funded a massive investment in dams and hydroelectric power as well as providing subsidies to farmers. Loading Advocates of the Green New Deal argue that a similarly broad sweep of government intervention is needed today to avoid catastrophic climate change. "Today is the day that we truly embark on a comprehensive agenda of economic, social and racial justice in the United States of America," Ocasio-Cortez said when launching the resolution. "We are here to say that small, incremental policy solutions are not enough."

The resolution has been co-sponsored by 60 Democrats in the House of Representatives and nine senators, including Democratic presidential contenders Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren. Pelosi, however, greeted it dismissively. "It will be one of several or maybe many suggestions that we receive," she said. "The green dream, or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they're for it, right?" The rollout of Ocasio-Cortez's announcement was damaged by the release of a document on her website saying the plan would guarantee employment to "all who are unable or unwilling to work". A spokesman said the document was an early draft published by mistake and didn't represent the contents of the resolution.

Nevertheless, it was leapt upon with glee by conservative media figures and Republican politicians. Here, they said, was the perfect embodiment of how radical and out-of-touch the modern Democratic Party has become. Loading "So she wants to change the way you heat your home, the way you cook your food, replacing air travel with trains, unionise all jobs, guarantee income for all - even those who don’t want to work," Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt said. "So, quit your job." Speaking to supporters at a rally in Texas, US President Donald Trump compared the Green New Deal to a failed homework assignment. "I really don't like their policy of taking away your car, of taking away your airplane rights, of 'let's hop a train to California', of you're not allowed to own cows anymore!" Trump said.

"It would shut down a little thing called air travel. How do you take a train to Europe?" The President regularly uses Twitter to ridicule climate science and has announced the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change. This week it was reported that he plans to create a new security committee chaired by climate sceptic William Happer, who has argued that “the demonisation of carbon dioxide is just like the demonisation of the poor Jews under Hitler". Republican congressman Mike Simpson, meanwhile, derided the Green New Deal as "crazy" and "loony". John Barrasso, a congressman from Wyoming, denounced it as a "socialist manifesto". Many of the criticisms were overblown and misleading. The resolution doesn't propose banning cars, cows or air travel, for example.

But many Democrats - who believe in climate change and want to take action - also lined up to criticise it. “The Green New Deal as it has been proposed is about as realistic as Trump saying that Mexico is going to pay for the wall," former Democratic congressman John Delaney said. "Let's focus on what's possible, not what's impossible." No one in their right mind thinks the Congress or the President will sign off on this. This is about agenda-setting. Steven Cohen, an expert in environmental policy at Columbia University Barney Frank, a progressive Democrat who served in Congress for three decades, said the Green New Deal would be a "loser" for the party in 2020. "People like me who do want to expand the government role in some areas need to understand that we need to show how that works.

"You have to do it in pieces. "There's an argument that you don't destabilise a society by doing too much change at once." Jonathan Chait, a progressive columnist for New York magazine, wrote: "Rather than think creatively about overcoming the formidable obstacles facing the green agenda, the Green New Deal retreats into a political fantasy world in which the ideologically median legislator is Bernie Sanders." Senator Bernie Sanders speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Credit:AP Steven Cohen, an expert in environmental policy at Columbia University, has his criticisms of the resolution, likening it to a Christmas tree with too many ornaments on it.

The inclusion of references to health care and affordable housing make it easy to caricature as a left-wing grab-bag rather than a serious climate plan, he says. But he still describes it as an "inspiring" and "very important political development". Ocasio-Cortez, he says, is "one of the most talented advocates to appear on the political scene in quite some time". "No one in their right mind thinks the Congress or the President will sign off on this," Cohen says. "This is about agenda-setting and starting a conversation." He points out that Roosevelt's New Deal started broad and involved experimentation; some of his measures succeeded and others failed. He praises the Green New Deal for moving away from a focus on taxes and regulations to infrastructure and job creation.

"One of the things you hear on the right is that you have to pick jobs or action on climate change," he says. "This says you can do both." Jay Inslee, the Democratic governor of Washington, has praised the Green New Deal for recognising the scale of the emergency climate scientists say humanity faces. "When Kennedy said we are going to go to the moon and bring him back safely in 10 years, would people have voted against that because they thought it would take 15?" he told MSNBC. "The power of it is to ignite the imagination and the ambition ... of the American people. It is a positive exercise in that regard." Inslee - who has taken aggressive action to reduce carbon emissions in his state - is considering entering the Democratic presidential race and making climate change his signature issue.

Climate change is already one of the most partisan issues in American politics. While 67 per cent of self-declared Democrats say it should be a top issue, just 21 per cent of Republicans feel the same way. Joseph Makjut, director of climate policy at the centrist Niskanen Center think tank, says fusing climate action with the New Deal will only further alienate Republicans who see it as a historic symbol of heavy-handed government. "Australia is an example of the dangers of climate change becoming a partisan issue, where one side of politics legislates a policy and the other tears it down," he says. "I'm very supportive of the goal of getting to zero emissions, but I don't think that we fundamentally need to re-organise society to get there." But he still believes Ocasio-Cortez's plan has served an important role.