Sen. Cory Booker joined the call Friday for a "Green New Deal" to attack climate change, his latest appeal to the Democrats' most liberal wing as he considers running for president in 2020.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, an incoming congresswoman and darling of the left, has called on Congress to take an aggressive approach to climate issues that rivals the economic New Deal that President Franklin Roosevelt implemented to battle the Great Depression.

Booker’s endorsement comes as the former Newark mayor tries to counter the image that he is too aligned with the party's corporate interests, including Wall Street and the pharmaceutical industry. That criticism regularly shows up in comment threads on Booker's social media posts, and it could be a drag if he competes in a field of 2020 candidates that includes fellow Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, among others.

Ocasio-Cortez, who joined Sanders on a livestreamed town hall on climate change earlier this month, wants a special congressional committee to develop a strategy to expand the use of renewable energy and move toward a nation that is “carbon-neutral,” meaning greenhouse gases that are produced are offset through other measures, such as planting more trees.

Earth's climate is changing faster than at any point in human history, primarily as a result of human activity, and the warming is responsible for more frequent damaging storms that could cut the nation's GDP by 10 percent by the end of the century, according to the National Climate Assessment released Nov. 23 by President Donald Trump's administration.

"Climate change is a clear and urgent threat to our communities and our future," Booker said in a statement Friday. "Its effects are disproportionately borne by our most vulnerable populations, namely communities of color and low-income communities. We must take bold action on climate change and create a green economy that benefits all Americans."

Booker said he was inspired by the efforts of activists "to help bring this issue to the forefront of the national dialogue."

Advocacy groups have been pressing Democrats to commit to the Green New Deal. Youthful protesters organized by the Sunrise Movement staged sit-ins at the Washington offices of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and others on Monday, and Ocasio-Cortez joined a similar protest last month when she arrived for her first week of new member orientation.

The group hailed Booker's endorsement on Friday.

Booker said last week that he has no firm date for announcing whether he’ll run for president, though he previously said he would meet with advisers during the holidays to discuss whether to run.

Booker traveled to New Hampshire last weekend to speak at a post-election rally in Manchester and at meet-and-greets at private homes in Concord, Keene and Nashua. Hosts of those events said crowds exceeded their expectations, and one said it rivaled the enthusiasm before the 2008 primary for Barack Obama.

“It was just an incredible trip,” Booker told NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey. “I don’t have a timeline to make a decision, but I will tell you that the energy I experienced up there was very encouraging to me as I think about the possibility of running for president.”

Booker's embrace of a dramatic approach to climate change is not a major shift in his positions on policy. As Newark mayor, he created a commission on sustainability, pursued grants to improve city buildings' energy efficiency, and worked with labor to build and retrofit homes to use cleaner energy, his office noted.

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In the Senate, he and the rest of the New Jersey delegation have battled against offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, and he worked to extend tax credits for renewable energy and attended the Paris climate talks in 2015.

Environmental justice is also part of the Green New Deal mandate, and Booker is sponsoring legislation requiring federal agencies to consider the impact of pollution on low-income and minority communities. The bill would also make it possible for people in communities such as Flint, Michigan, hit by environmental disasters to sue for damages.

But the adoption of the Green New Deal also could be the latest effort by Booker to blunt criticism he has faced at least since 2012, when he was blasted as a tool of Wall Street for using the word "nauseating" on a national news show to criticize the Obama campaign's attacks on Republican nominee Mitt Romney's work as a venture capitalist.

Among other steps he has taken in recent years, Booker: