Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has made up his mind about running for president in 2020 and will announce his decision soon, he told NBC News in an interview on Sunday.

(On MSNBC Monday afternoon, Inslee repeated to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell that an announcement is imminent.)

And if he does run, he’ll make combatting climate change his top issue – above all others.

“We’ve had a lot of great presidents. But we’ve never had a president who’s said this is the No. 1 priority of my administration. You’ve never had a president who’s said this is the paramount duty of the federal government,” he said.

“You have just not had that. We need that.”

Inslee, a Democrat who was first elected governor in 2012 and who served in the U.S. House of Representatives before that, praises the “Green New Deal” that progressives have pushed to respond to climate change. But he sees it as a mission statement.

“I liken it back to the original Apollo mission,” he said, referring to the U.S. effort to send a man to the moon. “Kennedy did not give you the design of the retrorockets when he said we were going to the moon, right?”

“We have one administration left – of chance – to restrain this monster,” he said of climate change when asked about other duties on the president’s desk. “When your house is on fire, you go grab the bucket and you fight the fire, even though your lawn needs mowing and you haven’t answered the mail. That’s the situation we’re in. This is a one-time chance.”

Inslee also said he favored eliminating the Senate filibuster – which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation – to help achieve his goals in combatting climate change.

“I think it’s got to go,” he argued. “I just believe that the nature of economic change and social change and the integration of the world economy demands a functioning Senate.”

Asked about a 2020 bid, Inslee said, “Yes, I’ve made up my mind.”

And the decision?

“It will be revealed fairly shortly, one way or another.”