Baltimore, Maryland - US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg decided to leave the stage after getting confronted by Climate Defiance activists at an event in Baltimore.

The former Democratic presidential candidate was speaking at Baltimore's Meyerhoff Symphony Hall when youth climate defenders intervened by taking the stage.

The activists, who were with the group Climate Defiance, urged Buttigieg to rethink his department's policies they said would drive up emissions and exacerbate the global climate emergency.

"Your [Department of Transportation] just approved the Sea Port Oil Terminal, a project that will have 80 coal plants' worth of greenhouse gas emissions and will worsen air quality in areas that already live in cancer clusters. This is about environmental racism, and it's about the climate impacts this project will have," one of the protesters said to the former South Bend mayor.

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In addition to the Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT), Climate Defiance has also slammed Buttigieg for green lighting the GulfLink crude oil export terminal, both off the coast of Texas. Together, the projects are expected to remove millions of barrels of oil per day, even as scientists urge the need for a swift transition to renewable energies.

"Stop SPOT and GulfLink, stop Petro Pete!" activists chanted as Buttigieg gave a bumbling answer before exiting the stage.

"Compromised, cowardly, and utterly, utterly complicit, Pete has not met the moment. He craves power but lacks conviction," Climate Defiance wrote on X.

"He feigns concern for the climate but can’t admit it is unacceptable to build new fossil fuel infrastructure in 2023. He is not the leader we need."