Tom Steyer launches $25m climate drive for US election

Tom Steyer, the US philanthropist and environmentalist, launched a $25 million drive on Monday to support candidates with strong climate policies in November's general election.

Billionaire Steyer founded the NextGen Climate environmental advocacy organisation in 2013 to raise funds to support candidates, elected officials, and policymakers with strong environmental agendas.

NextGen Climate’s new campaign will target youth voters in seven political battleground states and aims to boost turnout of millennials.

The group will deploy hundreds of organisers covering over 200 colleges to register young voters and facilitate on-campus voting In the build up to the November US general election.

The campaign is focusing on Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Nevada, Illinois and Colorado, where Steyer said young voters could "make up the difference in a tight race."

NextGen Climate said the number of registered millennials has nearly tripled since 2008 from 17.2 million to 50.3 million, and they have a keen interest in climate change and clean energy.

A poll from June 2015 found that 73 per cent of young voters want the US to get 50 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

NextGen Climate has not yet confirmed which candidates it will support in the elections but said it has asked all candidates to submit plans of how they would achieve a 50 per cent clean energy by 2030 target.

Steyer said NextGen will spend around $25 million on the campaign and will launch several other initiatives later in the election cycle.

In 2014, NextGen channelled over $70 million towards making climate change a central issue in midterm elections.