CNN to host live 7-hour climate change town hall with 2020 Democrats

CNN will host a live seven-hour “climate crisis town hall” next week with 10 Democratic primary candidates. 

Each candidate is allotted 40 minutes to address questions from CNN moderators and audience members at the town hall in New York, CNN announced Tuesday. 

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro will kick off the town hall at 5 p.m. The event will conclude with Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) appearance at 11:20 p.m.

Other Democrats will participate in the following order: former tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Texas).{mosads}

The network did not elaborate on how the candidate order was chosen. 

Five CNN journalists — Wolf Blitzer, Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon — will each moderate two candidates.

CNN’s chief climate correspondent Bill Weir will also question candidates throughout the evening. 

CNN’s town hall follows the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) decision not to host a climate-focused debate. A DNC committee voted down the proposal last week in a 17-8 vote, after months of pushback from activists calling for the party to host a debate centered on climate change.