AOC silent on Green New Deal’s expiring 2030 climate deadline as clock runs out
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While prominent climate activists like Bill Gates are shifting their focus away from environmental activism, “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DY, is staying mum on whether she still sticks to the ten-year deadline for action outlined in the Green New Deal.
When Ocasio-Cortez first introduced the Green New Deal to the House of Representatives in 2019, she framed climate change as an existential threat requiring a decade of massive sweeping changes in U.S. energy policy.
The Green New Deal was introduced as a 10-year national mobilization plan to combat climate change and create jobs. In interviews announcing the proposal, Ocasio-Cortez said: UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeHe predicted that the planet would reach the critical threshold of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels as early as 2030. This has accelerated the risk of extreme drought, bushfires, floods and food shortages for hundreds of millions of people, he said.
The proposal called for major infrastructure changes that would enable a rapid transition to renewable energy and reduced use of fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks with reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Facing criticism that the deal is economically unfeasible and even harmful, Ocasio-Cortez said, “Millennials and people, you know, Generation Z and all these people who will come after us are looking up and we’re thinking, ‘If we don’t deal with climate change, the world will end in 12 years. And your biggest problem is, ‘How are we going to pay for it?’ “For example, this is our Second World War.”
Six years later, Ocasio-Cortez has become one of the most well-known Democratic leaders and there are even rumors of her running for president in 2028.
Although her political chances have improved, Ocasio-Cortez did not respond to Fox News Digital’s question about whether she still believes the end of the world is near.
Indeed, according to World Meteorological OrganizationIn 2024, the world’s average temperature has already increased by 2.79 degrees; This year has been the hottest year ever recorded globally, and there have been no apocalyptic consequences yet.
Ocasio-Cortez continued to advocate for climate-focused policies. Its official website touts climate advocacy as taking partial credit for the federal government making “the largest ever investment in climate change – $369 billion to combat climate change, 9 million green jobs and net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.”
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WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 21: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks during a press conference with Senator Bernie Sanders outside the U.S. Capitol on March 21, 2024 in Washington, DC. Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders brought up the “Green New Deal for Public Housing” again during the press conference. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Among those shifting their previous emphasis on climate change activism is longtime environmental philanthropist and billionaire Bill Gates.
Gates, who has long pushed for policies to limit temperature rise, said in an article published in October that resources should be used to improve life in warming parts of the world and improve the lives of people there.
“Climate change, disease, and poverty are all big problems,” Gates wrote. “We must deal with them in proportion to the suffering they cause.”
He stated that global temperature does not give an idea about people’s quality of life.
“While climate change will have serious consequences, especially for people in the poorest countries, it will not lead to the death of humanity,” the Microsoft co-founder wrote. “This is a chance to refocus on the measure that should be even more important than emissions and temperature changes: improving lives. Our overarching goal must be to prevent suffering for those living in the harshest conditions, especially those living in the world’s poorest countries.”
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Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, is calling for resources to be shifted to fighting poverty and preventing disease and hunger, rather than focusing on reducing rising temperatures. (Ore Huiying/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Gates hasn’t given up on the fight against climate change. He noted that every tenth of a degree of warming is important.
“Even one-tenth of the warming we prevent is extremely beneficial because a stable climate makes it easier to improve people’s lives,” he wrote.
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“While climate change will harm poor people more than anyone else, for the vast majority of them it will not be the only, or even the biggest, threat to their lives and well-being,” he added.
In recent years, Gates has focused on the goals of the Gates Foundation, which donates billions of dollars to fund health, education and development initiatives around the world.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
