Hillary Clinton is bringing in Al Gore as her closer on climate change as she struggles to appeal to young voters who consider the issue a priority.
Vice president during her husband's eight years in the White House and a longtime environmental activist, Gore will join the Democratic presidential candidate at a rally in Miami today.
During the event, Clinton will emphasising her plans to develop more clean energy, reduce fossil fuel production and build more weather-resistant infrastructure. She will also continue her attacks on Republican Donald Trump.
Speaking at Ohio State University yesterday night, Clinton said, "I'm running against somebody who doesn't believe in climate change or at least he says he doesn't, who has even said he thinks it's a hoax created by the Chinese."
During the primary contest against progressive Vermont Sen Bernie Sanders, Clinton offered clean energy plans and came out against the Keystone XL Pipeline, which is opposed by environmentalists.
"Climate change is one of the issues where the difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is night and day," said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon.
"For many of the core supporters we are seeking to galvanize in the remaining weeks of the campaign, including young voters, communicating the boldness of her plan is important."
Trump has repeatedly questioned climate change and said he plans to "renegotiate" the Paris Climate Agreement, an international treaty designed to curb the rise in global temperatures.
The world is on pace for the hottest year on record, breaking marks set in 2015, 2014, and 2010. It is about 1.8 degrees warmer than a century ago.
Scientists have also connected man-made climate change to deadly heat waves, droughts and flood-inducing downpours. Gore explored global warming in his 2006 documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."
Advocacy group NextGen Climate, founded by billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, is backing Clinton and has put USD 25 million into a millennial outreach program. Their surveys of young people showed that early in the summer, many did not see a difference between Clinton and Trump on climate, but as they learned more, they moved toward Clinton.
"We've seen throughout this campaign that climate change is an issue that millennials care about deeply," said NextGen's political director Heather Hargreaves.
Despite Clinton's promotion of energy policies aimed at lessening climate change, there has not always been unanimity among her campaign aides about how strong that support should be.
"And we can get there by investing in cutting edge
research to keep developing cheaper and better clean energy technologies, investing in clean energy infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, putting big partnerships together between states, cities and rural communities," she added.
"Donald Trump is, quote, 'not a big believer' in climate change.As I said, he said it's a hoax created by the Chinese. And in our first debate two weeks ago, he tried to deny saying that. But that tweet is still there for everyone to see," Clinton said referring to a tweet by the real estate baron in 2012.
Addressing the meeting, Al Gore asserted that with Clinton in the White House, the US will build on the progress made under Barack Obama with the Paris Agreement and she will seize the opportunities. "After all, solar electricity and wind electricity is now way cheaper than it was years ago when some of us started sounding the alarm about this crisis," he said.
"Almost 100 years ago, America's most famous inventor, Thomas Edison said these words -- it's an exact quote: 'I would put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power. I hope we don't have to wait until the oil and coal come out before we tackle that.'Now, I want to say a brief word -- I'm going to return to my second main point here in a minute, but I want to say a brief word about something else that all of you can do. You can elect Patrick Murphy to the United States Senate instead of a climate denier," Gore said.
