Following criticism of his climate change plan, Democratic presidential candidate Beto ORourke said Wednesday he had signed the No fossil fuel money pledge and would decline any high-dollar donations from energy industry executives during his campaign.

ORourke said he made the decision in large part due to talks he had with students during a recent visit to the College of William & Mary. He was pressed by audience members during that event about future campaign donations , and the lawmaker said in a video message Wednesday he wanted to address those concerns.

We need everybody on board to meet this challenge head on. We dont want there to be any real or perceived conflicts of interest, ORourke said in a message posted to Twitter. So in accordance with the pledge, weve returned any money weve received over $200 from any fossil fuel company executives, we will not take that money going forward. We continue to try to be the largest grassroots campaign in this country.

The bid may well be an attempt for ORourke, a former Texas congressman who launched a failed Senate campaign last year, to move past some criticism over his history of accepting money from the energy industry. ORourke received more than $546,000 from oil and gas industry employees in 2018, the second-highest amount of any other member of Congress, according to OpenSecrets.org . Only Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), whom ORourke had hoped to unseat, received more.

He has long rejected donations from PACs, but Bloomberg reported last month that ORourke had declined to sign the pledge until now.

The pledge bars fossil-fuel-linked donations from oil executives, lobbyists and PACs, and mandates that candidates instead prioritize the health of our families, climate, and democracy over fossil fuel industry profits. Many notable Democrats have also signed it , including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who are all also running for president.

Wednesdays announcement comes just days after ORourke released a sweeping, $5 trillion plan to tackle climate change should he be elected. The effort would include massive investments in renewable energy, policies to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and the re-signing of the Paris Agreement. But some criticized the proposal as overly vague .

The effort was also met with some frustration by some of ORourkes competitors, most notably Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), who has launched his own bid for the presidency centered on climate change. Inslee disavowed fossil-fuel industry donations shortly after he announced his candidacy, and his campaign accused ORourke of throwing out dollar signs backed by empty rhetoric.