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CNN Live Event/Special

Climate Crisis Town Hall with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Presidential Candidate. Aired 9:20-10p ET

Aired September 04, 2019 - 21:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[21:20:00]

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Welcome back to CNN's town hall on the climate crisis. I'm Chris Cuomo, and we're here with the top 10 candidates for president of the United States. They're unveiling their plans to fight climate change, and as an audience, we will be testing their ideas.

Now, right now, Hurricane Dorian is hovering off of the East Coast of the United States. We're seeing storms that are intensifying, and that's just one sign of the dangerous world that scientists tell us we're entering if humans don't cut carbon pollution in half in the next 11 years, and then to net zero by 2050.

So let's deal with the instant circumstance with Dorian. Let's get the latest on the hurricane and go to CNN weather center with Jennifer Gray. Jennifer, what are we seeing now?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN: Well, Chris, the latest with the storm, it's almost a Category 3, just barely hanging on to that Category 2 status, with winds of 110 miles per hour, 111 would be a Category 3 with gusts of 130. Moving to the north at 8. Right now it's about 130 miles south of Charleston. They will be feeling the tropical-storm-force winds tonight and conditions will continue to deteriorate as we go through tomorrow, already getting those rain bands from South Carolina all the way down through Georgia, and even Florida still feeling it, as well.

Could be a Category 2, possibility fluctuating to a Category 3 sometime overnight tonight into tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see. But Charleston could get quite a bit of storm surge. That's going to be one of the main threats. And then as the storm races off to the north, North Carolina is in it just as much, Chris, with a lot of storm surge, wind and rain.

CUOMO: Right. And you have areas that aren't used to taking storm surge. We'll be staying on the coverage. We'll be needing your help. Jennifer, thank you very much.

And, of course, the idea of bigger and bigger hurricanes, more and more frequently, that's one of the things scientists worry about and point to as an indication of imminent climate change.

So what do you say? It's time to get some answers to voters' questions. Let's bring in Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. (APPLAUSE)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good to see you. All right.

CUOMO: All right. Let's get right to the audience, what do you say, Senator?

WARREN: I'm ready!

CUOMO: Let's bring in Diana Krantz from Philadelphia. She's retired. She's working on her second novel. Diana, what's your question?

WARREN: Wow, Diana. What was the first one?

QUESTION: I'm not going to say.

WARREN: Oh, OK.

(LAUGHTER)

This was your big chance.

QUESTION: It's not related to the climate.

WARREN: I'm trying to help here, Diana. OK.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Anyway, thank you for this opportunity. Most economists believe that a carbon tax is the most efficient way to reduce carbon emissions. Would you push for such a tax? And if not, please explain why you don't favor that approach.

WARREN: So I think of this as what my mother taught me, and that is you got to clean up your own messes. And that means if you're going to be spewing carbon into the air and messing up the air for the rest of us, it's your responsibility to clean it up.

And we've been talking about this for a long time. We've actually started putting parts of this in place in New England and other regional areas. But, yes, we need to say that those who are throwing the carbon into the air that the rest of us have to breathe, that the rest of us have to deal with, are the ones who are responsible for paying for that. I'm there.

CUOMO: So yes to a carbon tax. How much? What kind of number do you got? If it's President Warren, what do you do?

WARREN: Actually, I -- what I want to do is -- I want to talk -- I'm glad you raised this. I want to talk about the ways we make change and how we think about change. We've been talking about a carbon tax for a very long time. And like I said, we've had some regional experiments, some different places, and it's been shown to have some good effects. But I actually have a more aggressive plan that I want to move to. I

want to think about the three areas where we get the most carbon pollution in America right now. And what are they? They're in our buildings and homes, right, what we're burning. It's our cars and light-duty trucks that we drive. And it's the generation of electricity where we're still using a lot of carbon-based fuel to make that happen.

So you may remember that Governor Jay Inslee said let's get tough on this and let's put in place some real rules about this. So what I've adopted is, by 2028, we don't have any more new building that has any carbon footprint. By 2030, we do the same thing on vehicles, on our cars and light-duty trucks. And by 2035, we do the same thing on electric generation. That will cut 70 percent of the carbon that we are currently spewing into the air. That's how you make a real difference.

(APPLAUSE)

CUOMO: All right, so let's go back to the audience for a question about how we'll be generating power. We want to bring in Zach O'Neill from Staten Island, New York. He's a sustainability manager for Columbia University. Zach?

WARREN: Hi, Zach.

QUESTION: Hi, Senator Warren, how are you?

WARREN: I'm doing good. How about you?

QUESTION: I'm good tonight. I'm good.

(CROSSTALK)

WARREN: Good, I'm glad. Are you feeling sustainable? OK, good.

QUESTION: So my question is, what is your opinion on the prospect of nuclear energy to help replace fossil fuels? And do the risks outweigh any potential benefits?

WARREN: So you rightly point out about nuclear energy. It's not carbon-based, but the problem is it's got a lot of risks associated with it, particularly the risks associated with the spent fuel rods that nobody can figure out how we're going to store these things for the next bazillion years.

So here's how I see. In my administration, we're not going to build any new nuclear power plants, and we are going to start weaning ourselves off nuclear energy and replacing it with renewable fuels over -- we're going to get it all done by 2035, but I hope we're getting it done faster than that. That's the plan.

QUESTION: Thank you.

WARREN: You bet. Thank you. CUOMO: You know, when you look at Germany as a model, their ambitions

-- it's being reported that they're going to fall short. One of the problems they have is balancing types of power. When it's bright and sunny, they generate so much wind and solar that it can flood the market and puts the wholesale price almost to zero. When it's dark in the wintertime, when they need the power, they have to use nuclear, they have to look for other sources. Can the ambition meet the reality of phasing out fossil fuels and not using something like nuclear, at least in the short term?

WARREN: So, remember, it's not only about production, it's also about storage. And to the extent we do a better job, for example, in how to store all of that energy, then you get to use solar power at high noon but you also get to use it at midnight.

So I'm going to tell you where I place my biggest bet, and that is on science. You know, I really believe in science. But, really, the point is -- and this is a big part of one of my plans, and that is that we put a lot of money into the science, into research, into development.

Think of it this way. Back when we first started talking about auto emissions, when you couldn't breathe the air for days on end in L.A. and they said we just -- we just got to roll back on these emissions, we set emission standards that at that moment, the auto industry said we got no way to meet them. And the answer was: Figure out a way. They developed the catalytic converter and, lo and behold, they cut emissions.

So I see this as this is our moment. Make that investment in science, make that investment in research and development. And that's how it is that we will both have more renewable generation, but more to the point, we will also have more storage so that renewable power makes more sense 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

(APPLAUSE)

CUOMO: So quick step into the future. You win the nomination.

WARREN: I like that. Say that again.

CUOMO: You're on the debate -- so far the premise is good.

WARREN: Uh-huh, OK, good.

CUOMO: You're on the debate stage. You're across from the president. And he says the Green New Deal is a dream because we're 60 percent right now on fossil fuels. You're saying you want to put into research and get it done, but you don't know how right now. So you want to bet our economy on an ambition. What's the answer?

WARREN: He says the Green New Deal is a dream? I would say...

CUOMO: I'm assuming he says it. I don't know what he'd say. It may not be that nice. WARREN: So I'm just saying, where he is right now is a nightmare.

(APPLAUSE)

And that's where we really do have to start this conversation. Don't sit around and tell me what's not possible. Sit around and look what happens if we don't make change.

We've got, what, 11 years, maybe, to reach a point where we've cut our emissions in half, and that's not just America. We're only 20 percent of the problem. That's a big hunk of the problem, but there's another world out there that's 80 percent of this problem. So you bet that this is a moment where we better dream big and fight hard, because that's how it is that we're going to make the changes we need to make.

Now, part of it is going to be about research and development, you bet. Part of it we already know how to do. We know how to do off- shore wind. We know how to do solar. The question is, are we willing to put the resources into it? And my answer is yeah, we'd better be willing to put the resources into it because the alternative is unthinkable. Life on Earth is at risk, and if we don't make this commitment, we not only cheat our children, we cheat their future and their children's future, and that is morally wrong. We have to be all the way in.

(APPLAUSE)

CUOMO: So let's get an audience question about what you want to move away from. Let's bring in Robin Happel, Johnson City, Tennessee, an environmental law student at Pace University.

WARREN: Fabulous. Good to see you.

QUESTION: Good evening. As someone who was born and raised in southern Appalachia, I have seen firsthand the devastating impact of mountaintop removal coal mining. Would your administration support policies, like the Appalachian Community's Health Emergency Act, H.R. 250, that take into account the impact coal has on our communities and help provide a path forward?

CUOMO: And, Senator, I know you know this, but just for the audience, 250 says that they're going to halt any permits for mountaintop coal mining until there's an assessment done of impact on surrounding communities.

WARREN: And the answer is yes. We need to go where we were talking about earlier. You don't get to ruin the air for everyone else, the water for everyone, the soil for everyone else. We don't -- just to help giant corporations. They don't get to make our kids sick. They don't get to shorten lifespans because it increases their profitability.

You know what I think is the fundamental question right now is how have we gotten ourselves into this mess? How has it gone this long when the climate science year after year after year has told us it's getting more and more dangerous out there, it's getting worse and worse for life on this Earth.

And the answer is because of Washington. We have a Washington that works great for the wealthy and the well-connected, a Washington that is working great for giant oil companies that want to drill everywhere. It's just not working for the rest of us who see climate change bearing down upon us.

When you see a government that works great for those with money, a government that works great for those who can make big campaign contributions and hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers, and it's not working for everybody else, that is corruption, pure and simple, and we need to call it out for what it is. Fight back.

(APPLAUSE)

CUOMO: So, Senator, back to the scenario, you win the nomination, you're on the debate stage...

WARREN: Keep saying it. Yeah.

CUOMO: And your opponent says, OK, I get it, you want to run away from fossil fuels, fine, science, science, what about those workers...

WARREN: No, I want to breathe the air and drink the water.

CUOMO: And so do the people working at the fossil fuel companies. They're worried they're not going to have a job and that all of these solutions go out into the future, but damn them in the immediate. What do you do to those men and women who are working in that industry now who worry about being displaced?

WARREN: See, you know, I think this is one of the best parts about the Green New Deal. It's not only about setting the targets on green so that we save this planet. It's about a new deal for people who work. It's about justice for people whose communities have been destroyed. It's about racial justice on environmental issues. It's about worker justice.

So here's what I propose. I have, among my many plans, one of the ones is about a green manufacturing plan. So let me use that as an example. Coming up, there is an estimated $17 trillion market for green around the world. Think about it. Green generation of power, but also green to take carbon out of the air, to clean up the water, desalinization, and, by the way, a lot of this stuff hasn't been invented yet.

So you see this giant worldwide market, people want to do this, or at least feel like they need to, because they see what's happening. What can we do? And I've got a three-part answer to that. The first is, make the big investment in science and research and development, the things we do best here in America.

Part two is we say to the world, you can produce whatever we come up with in our science, whatever devices, you can have it, you can apply it, but whatever is manufactured from it, you have to manufacture right here in the United States of America. That will produce an estimated 1.2 million new manufacturing jobs, good jobs, union jobs, not jobs that pay less, not jobs that are an afterthought, but real jobs. So that's part one of it.

We want to sell this stuff around the world. That's how you generate a change in how we see both our economy, building unions, building good jobs, and at the same time both saving our own nation and the rest of the world on the climate front. These are the kind of changes that we can make together.

And let me say one more thing about workers, because I don't want to miss this chance. Understand we need our smart workers. We need the guys and the gals who have been sitting around for a long time who know how to read plans and they know how to move big equipment and they know how to help us, because we're going to need to rebuild our infrastructure around this country. There are places where we're going to need to harden our infrastructure.

The oceans are rising. You know, I visit a lot of port cities. I live in one. We are going to have to make big change, and that means we need our workers. We need our workers to be there, to help us, to be partners in this, and quite frankly, to have the good, well-paying jobs as part of that.

This is a win-win for everybody. This is how we go into the future and build an America that is both green and an America that's not just working for the profits for the fossil fuel industry, but an America that's working for everybody.

(APPLAUSE)

CUOMO: So a quick question about going from the worker to the consumer. Today the president announced plans to roll back energy- saving lightbulbs, and he wants to reintroduce four different kinds, which I'm not going to burden you with, but one of them is the candle- shaped ones, and those are a favorite for a lot of people, by the way. But do you think that the government should be in the business of telling you what kind of lightbulb you can have?

WARREN: Oh, come on, give me a break. You know...

CUOMO: Is that a yes?

WARREN: No. Here's the -- look, there are a lot of ways that we try to change our energy consumption, and our pollution, and God bless all of those ways. Some of it is with lightbulbs, some of it is on straws, some of it, dang, is on cheeseburgers, right? There are a lot of different pieces to this. And I get that people are trying to find the part that they can work on and what can they do. And I'm in favor of that. And I'm going to help and I'm going to support.

But understand, this is exactly what the fossil fuel industry hopes we're all talking about. That's what they want us to talk about.

(APPLAUSE)

"This is your problem." They want to be able to stir up a lot of controversy around your lightbulbs, around your straws, and around your cheeseburgers. When 70 percent of the pollution of the carbon that we're throwing into the air comes from three industries, and we can set our targets and say, by 2028, 2030, and 2035, no more. Think about that. Right there.

Now, the other 30 percent, we still got to work on. Oh, no, we don't stop at 70 percent. But the point is, that's where we need to focus. And why don't we focus there? It's corruption. It's these giant corporations that keep hiring the PR firms that -- everybody has fun with it, right, gets it all out there -- so we don't look at who's still making the big bucks off polluting our Earth.

And the time for that has passed. We have a chance, a chance left in 2020 to turn this around, but we are running out of time on this one. So we've got to do this in 2020, and that means the first thing we've got to do is we've got to attack this corruption head on in Washington and say enough of having the oil industry, the fossil fuel industry write all our laws in this area. No more. No more.

(APPLAUSE)

CUOMO: Let's bring in Robert Wood from Brooklyn, New York. He's a writer and climate organizer for 350 Brooklyn. Robert?

WARREN: Hi, Robert.

QUESTION: Hi. Bernie Sanders has endorsed the idea of the public ownership of utilities, arguing that we can't adequately solve this crisis without removing the profit motive from the distribution of essential needs like energy. As president, would you be willing to call out capitalism in this way and advocate for the public ownership of our utilities?

WARREN: Gosh, you know, I'm not sure that that's what gets you to the solution. I'm perfectly willing to take on giant corporations. I think I've been known to do that once or twice.

But for me, I think the way we get there is we just say, sorry, guys, but by 2035, you're done. You're not going to be using anymore carbon-based fuels, that that gets us to the right place. And if somebody wants to make a profit from building better solar panels and generating better battery storage, I'm not opposed to that.

What I'm opposed to is when they do it in a way that hurts everybody else. You shouldn't be able to externalize these costs. That's the problem with fossil fuels right now. I think that the best way we go forward here is we open up the opportunities. We open up the possibilities. We invest in the science, we invest in the manufacturing, we invest in the pieces that let us build a future together going forward.

But I just want to be clear. We've got to have tough rules that we're willing to enforce. And that means we have got to be willing to fight back against these giant industries. And that's where the whole thing starts for me. We put them on their back foot, then we have a real chance to make the changes we need to make. And that's what it's going to take.

CUOMO: Senator Warren, let's take a quick break. We'll be back with more questions for the senator. And in a moment, we're going to have South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg will join us next. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right, welcome back. In just minutes, we're going to hear from South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and then we have former Congressman Beto O'Rourke. But right now we have Senator Elizabeth Warren. Let's get some more questions.

All right. Thanks for being here so far.

WARREN: Glad to be here.

CUOMO: Now, I want to bring in another member of the audience...

WARREN: Thanks so far.

CUOMO: You never know how it goes. You may change your opinion.

QUESTION: Chantel Comardelle, she's from a narrow island of land in Louisiana known as Isle de Jean Charles. It's rapidly disappearing because of rising sea levels and coastal erosion. Chantel, thank you very much for being with us. What's your question, Chantel?

QUESTION: Thank you. So, as you said, I'm from the Island of Jean Charles, Biloxi, Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe. We've been dubbed as many -- by as the first American climate refugees. We had a front-row seat to climate change for the past 20 years. I had to move my home from my island home when I was little due to mold-induced asthma and from repeat flooding. So my question to you is, if president, what changes would you make to support communities like mine who face community- wide displacement and culture erasure?

WARREN: Yeah. So let me start by saying how very sorry I am. It's got to be heart to watch your homelands disappear like this and to know that you've done everything you can do, but that the forces bigger than you have taken over.

And so I see it this way. Part one is that everything we spend on climate has to be about reducing our carbon footprint. It has to be about justice, as well, though, for people who have been displaced, for workers who have been displaced, for people in communities of color who have for generations now been the ones where the toxic dumps got sited next to their homes. Their children breathe the nasty particulates that brought on asthma, their seniors died earlier.

And so part of this change is not only about reducing climate footprint, about reducing our pollution of this Earth, but it's about trying to help those who've been injured from all that's happened.

So part of what I have reference to in the plan -- it's not all the way stretched out yet, and so I'm still working on this -- and I want to work on this with the communities that are affected -- is making sure that this money goes down to the community level, that it doesn't just all happen in two or three places around the country that can make the most noise, that are the biggest, that it doesn't go, I'll be blunt, to governors. It goes all the way down to the communities that are affected.

And if I can, I just want to add one more piece. You know, when I think about climate, it is the existential threat. It is the one that threatens all life on this planet, that every day we're losing species. It's changing. The oceans are getting more acidic.

So when I first started thinking about how to describe what I will fight for when I run for president, I decided I wasn't going to do one climate plan. I decided I was going to try to look at climate in every part of the plans I'm working on.

So that means I've got a lot of places where this comes in, because that's how I see it. It's not going to be a one and done that's all confined. It's that it hits in different places.

So, for example, on the policies about our relationship, our federal government's relationship with our native tribes, it's about respecting the tribe's ability to take care of their own land, to be good stewards of the land.

(APPLAUSE)

And a commitment as president that I will not approve any plans for the use of federal lands that are near tribal lands that can affect what happens on tribal lands or sacred lands that are sacred to our Native American brothers and sisters, that I will not do that without the prior informed consent of the neighboring tribes. I think that's how we help tribes be the stewards of the land that they have been for generations and I know they will be for generations to come.

CUOMO: All right. Our CNN climate corruption Bill Weir has a question. Bill?

WEIR: Senator Warren, let me tell you a story about neighbors in Port Arthur, Texas. We have a little video to show.

WARREN: I've been to Port Arthur.

WEIR: You've been to Port Arthur. Then you know what it looks like. This is the Motiva oil refinery. It is the biggest in the world -- or at least in North America. It is in Port Arthur, but it's owned by a Saudi Arabian company that made more profit, twice as much profit as Apple Computers last year.

Although right next door, I met a family in a $60,000 house that can't afford to fix the mold from Harvey. Even though they understand the problems, they would tell you, please don't shut them down because I will die of starvation before I die of pollution. They're worried about jobs. And so what do you tell the pipefitters and cafeteria workers in Port Arthur what will happen to them if these places go dark? WARREN: So, I would say two things to them. The first one is, that's

not the only job in Port Arthur over the next 20 years. I've seen Port Arthur. Port Arthur is going to need a lot of infrastructure rebuilding and strengthening. It's going to need a lot of help right on the water.

Those are good jobs. Those are union jobs. Those are skilled jobs. We have a lot of work to do, and I hope the workers in Port Arthur will be a big part of that. That's part one.

But part two is, who's making the real money off Port Arthur and those workers? Who's making that money? It's the investors, it's the Saudis who own this company. How is it in a democracy that we could have a handful of corporations that year after year keep dragging in bigger and bigger profits while the oceans continue to rise, while your home disappears, while your children have asthma, while people die? That's not right.

And the reason it is happening is Washington. Washington could have put a stop to this decades ago. But they didn't. Washington is corrupt. It is taking money from the fossil fuel industry, from the big polluters, and it's doing exactly what they want, which is mostly nothing.

And if we don't call that out and attack it head on, understand, in the next few years, there will be bills that will be called climate bills. They'll have fabulous names. All the air has just been cleaned up, water is now pure and wonderful, that will be the name of the bill, comma, brought to you by Exxon. Read the fine print on what that bill says.

So the way I see this is we have to attack the corruption head on, because until we attack that corruption head on, so long as those guys continue to call the shots, then we're not going to be able to make the changes that we must make.

These changes are no longer optional. They're no longer there as a maybe yes, maybe no. There is our future. This is our children's future. This is our grandchildren's future. And we are running out of time. So for me, head on is to attack the corruption in Washington that keeps Washington working for these big fossil fuel companies.

(APPLAUSE)

CUOMO: (inaudible) I want to bring in a video question. This is Bren Smith. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a commercial fisherman. Now he works as a shellfish farmer. Bren, what's your question?

WARREN: Hi, Bren.

QUESTION: My oyster farm was destroyed by two hurricanes. Now warming waters and acidification are killing seed coast to coast and reducing yields. Those of us that work on the water, we need climate solutions and we need them now. The trouble is, is the Green New Deal only mentions our oceans one time. This is despite the fact that our seas soak up more than 25 percent of the world's carbon. So what's your plan for a Blue New Deal for those of us working on the oceans?

WARREN: I like that.

QUESTION: (inaudible) ensure that all of us can make a living on a living planet.

WARREN: So I -- thank you. I think it is a great question. I think he's got it exactly right. We need a Blue New Deal, as well. Good for you.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, I just want to say on this one about the oceans. The rising acidification and the fact that now, in Boston, right, the lobsters move to Maine because it's too warm in the waters and the food for them doesn't grow appropriately, and so on.

I talk to folks who fish commercially off our shores, down by New Bedford, up by Gloucester. You know what they tell me? They keep pulling stuff up that they don't even know what it is.

And so what do they do? I talked to one who said, so I'd call my brother-in-law who fishes commercially off the coast of Florida, because I send him pictures and he says, oh, yeah, we used to catch those down here. But now they've moved to Boston and to the waters around Massachusetts and New England.

So here's what really scares me. This isn't slowing down. It's speeding up. Where are they going next? And what are we going to be left with? We count on our oceans for life, not just for food, but what it means in our entire climate.

So I love it. You want to call it a Blue New Deal, count me in. But part of getting the carbon out of the air, out of the water, out of the soil is also about the change in what's happening in our oceans, these big dead patches now and the patches of trash.

Which goes back to a point I was making earlier, and that is we can't just think about cleaning up the United States of America. We cannot think about from the East Coast to the West Coast, plus Hawaii and Alaska. We can't just think from the Canadian border down to the border with Mexico. We have to think about the whole world.

And that's why many of my plans intersect with our global opportunities and responsibilities. Like I said, lots of plans, elizabethwarren.com/climate. Because we've got to be working on all fronts.

CUOMO: So we have a couple minutes left.

WARREN: OK.

CUOMO: Let's talk about one of the metrics of your commitment to the problem. You've said it's the ultimate threat to life on Earth. One of the metrics of commitment is how much money you're going to put toward it. You say $3 trillion over 10 years, and Senator Sanders says he's going to do $16 trillion. Does that mean he is more dedicated to this than you?

WARREN: No.

(LAUGHTER)

But let me tell you why. And that is -- yeah, I've got plans. I've got a $2 trillion plan. I've got a $1 trillion plan and picking up how we're going to cut carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2035.

But we got to use all the tools in the tool box. This is not a moment where we just say, you know what, we just need to put some money on it and then we're going to fix this problem. It takes money. Boy, don't get me wrong. It takes money to make this investment.

But we need to be willing to use our regulatory tools. That's an important part of it. We have to use our position internationally. So my trade policy also includes climate elements to it.

Look, here's a piece of it. I think that we need a climate adjustment fee on products that are imported to the United States. Think about it this way. There's something that takes a lot of carbon to produce. We can't simply export our pollution and say as long as they produce it across the border or somewhere else, then it's OK with us and we'll still buy it here.

No, we want to create the right kind of competition for our industry here, but we also want to think globally. Then the answer is, you want to import something here in the United States, we want to know, how much carbon was used to produce that? And let's think about how we have to equalize price on it.

People want to get to the American markets. You want to get to the American market? Then you've got to sign onto some basic climate agreements, right? We are not going to give favored nation trading partnership rights to countries that are polluting. We need to think in a global sense.

Now, that doesn't -- it's not dollars out of the Treasury, but it has an effect worldwide. So I think of this as we've got to approach this from a lot of different ways.

I want to say, I proudly adopted many of Governor Inslee's plans. He said have at them, they're open source. My view is you go everywhere where there's a good idea, including a Blue New Deal. Hit them up and use them because the only way we're going to make change is if we're looking everywhere and we keep testing it, figure out what works, do more of that. What doesn't work, we have to let it go. But we have got to make change and we've got to make it now.

CUOMO: Senator Elizabeth Warren, thank you very much.

WARREN: Thank you. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

CUOMO: In just moments, joining us will be South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the millennial candidate who says change on the climate is personal for young people. Also, we have former Congressman Beto O'Rourke coming up and Senator Cory Booker. So stay with CNN. And again, thank you, Senator Warren.

WARREN: Thank you.

[22:00:00]