Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday applauded the “arms race” that he said has developed among the 2020 Democratic presidential contenders to lay out aggressive plans to tackle climate change, which had been the signature issue of his own since-ended bid for the White House.

Mr. Inslee gave shout-outs to Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California and former Obama administration Julián Castro for the plans they’ve released in recent days. The governor said he had a “great meeting” with Ms. Warren a few days ago.

“So we have seen, I think, an arms race now in a good way of candidates competing to have the most effective plans, and I think that’s a good thing,” he said on CNN’s “New Day.”

Mr. Inslee, who dropped out of the presidential race last month, had introduced the most comprehensive set of proposals to tackle climate change among the 2020 field and said his ideas are available to the candidates as “open source” material.

“I’ve spoken to the majority of the candidates who have shown an intense interest in this,” he said. “So I think we’re now in a place that is really healthy, where the Democratic Party is, I believe, going to produce a candidate to really make climate change a focus.”

He said that a focus on climate change could be the key to defeating President Trump next year.

“This is a way to defeat Donald Trump, because this is his very weakest [point],” Mr. Inslee said. “About 70% of the people don’t trust him at all on environmental issues, and so we need to attack his weakest point with our strongest candidate. And I feel that’s what we’re going to do.”

Ten presidential contenders are set to take part in a “climate crisis” town hall event hosted by CNN in New York on Wednesday.

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