Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered an implicit rebuke aimed at former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on climate change, saying she can’t abide politicians who advocate a moderate approach on the issue.

“I will be damned if the same politicians who refused to act then are going to try to come back today and say we need a ‘middle-of-the-road’ approach to save our lives — that is too much for me,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said Monday evening at an event to rally support for the “Green New Deal” climate plan.

Mr. Biden has been taking heat from the left, including from some of his 2020 Democratic presidential rivals, in the wake of a Reuters report last week that said he was trying to carve out a “middle ground” approach on the issue.

Sen. Bernard Sanders, a 2020 rival of Mr. Biden’s who has said there is no “middle ground” when it comes to climate policy, also appeared at the Green New Deal event at Howard University on Monday.

“Our job is to transform our energy system, take on the fossil fuel industry, and save the planet,” Mr. Sanders, Vermont independent, said at the event.

In New Hampshire on Monday, Mr. Biden tried to push back and defended his record on the environment.

“We need an environmental revolution,” he said at an event in Hampton. “We do need to finish this green revolution in a way that’s rational, and we can do it, afford it, and get it done now.”

Mr. Biden said he planned to deliver a more detailed speech on the issue by the end of the month.

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