Climate change is not theoretical. As fires rage in the Amazon, a hurricane menaces the Eastern Seaboard, and a heat wave spreads across Southern California, we are feeling the effects of catastrophic climate change everywhere � including New Hampshire.

Parts of the Granite State are still recovering from severe flooding after a July thunderstorm brought a record 7 inches of rain in less than three hours. In the Upper Valley, that afternoon of heavy rain washed out more than 20 percent of the roads in Orange, costing an estimated $900,000 in repairs when the town�s entire annual road maintenance budget is only $100,000.

Climate change is making extreme weather more common � and more costly to address. And it's getting worse. Scientists tell us we have about a decade before we hit a horizon of catastrophe when it comes to our climate.

This crisis was decades in the making. But for as long as I�ve been alive, politicians in Washington have failed to confront it, choosing denial and obstruction over action. Amid this vacuum of leadership, local communities have risen to the challenge, delivering fresh and bold solutions.

As a Midwestern mayor who helped my community recover from a devastating 1,000-year flood and a 500-year flood just 18 months later, I recognize climate change for the urgent national security threat that it is. The people of the Granite State understand the urgency and have shown the same leadership. I was proud to join more than 400 mayors � including those from Concord, Manchester, Nashua, Portsmouth, and Somersworth � in committing to uphold the Paris Climate Agreement goals.

But while local governments are acting aggressively on climate change, tackling this issue requires federal action on an unprecedented scale. That's why I�ve proposed a bold and comprehensive plan to meet this crisis by channeling all our energies into a national project � one that draws on the resources of every American, from big cities to rural communities, to seize the tremendous opportunity of a new era of climate action.

There are three pillars to our climate plan: build a clean economy to transition to a zero-emissions economy by 2050 with near-term goals along the way, invest in resilience to protect our communities from the effects of a warming world, and demonstrate American climate leadership on the world stage.

To create that clean economy, my administration will quadruple federal clean energy R&D funding to $25 billion a year by 2025, investing $250 billion of federal funds in clean energy and resilient infrastructure projects.

We�ll launch a 21st century Industrial Revolution, investing in mass transit, transitioning to electric vehicles, and making buildings more energy efficient. This will rapidly accelerate the clean energy economy of New Hampshire and states across the nation and create three million new jobs, many of them good union jobs. These investments will also help bring down utility bills for residents in New Hampshire, who currently pay the sixth-highest electricity rates in the country.

With $645 million in property along the Seacoast at risk of frequent flooding from rising oceans, and 80% of the state covered in forests now at risk from fire and shifting insect populations, we will create regional resilience hubs backed by $5 billion in annual grants to help communities build green infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather and sea level rise. And when communities are hit by extreme weather, we will make it easier to recover by streamlining disaster assistance so local officials have more control over how to help their communities build back.

Finally, my administration will restore American global climate leadership. When I�m President, the United States won�t just rejoin the Paris accord, we�ll redouble our commitment � and we�ll encourage other countries to adopt their own price on carbon. And we�ll convene a Pittsburgh Climate Summit of regional, state, and local leaders to galvanize action around locally-created solutions.

I hope to have children someday soon, and I hope to tell them this was the moment we beat the odds on climate change and built a healthier and more prosperous future before it was too late. If we come together around bold solutions to this climate emergency, we can be proud of how we met this moment.

Pete Buttigieg is the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a Democratic candidate for president of the United States.