Americans do not care about the climate crisis, only economic issues: that’s the message some wonks have put forth in the past year, as the Trump administration has dismantled environmental protections. But the shift away from climate is misguided, an influential group of progressives is arguing.

“The climate crisis is a core driver of the cost-of-living crisis and instability we see across the economy,” says a new policy platform from left-leaning thinktank Climate and Community Institute (CCI).

The proposal, “Stop Greed, Build Green,” outlines a framework for what its authors call “green economic populism”. Decarbonization should be understood not as a competing priority to affordability, but as a potential tool for achieving it, says the group, which has written federal bills for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a representative, and Bernie Sanders, a senator, and was behind a groundbreaking New York public power law.

It’s a rebuttal to the growing Washington chorus claiming climate policy is politically toxic.