Urging his fellow political leaders to resist the “siren call of sloganeering” in the heat of an election year, Gov. Charlie Baker called Tuesday night for the state to embrace an aggressive new climate goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 and shower $135 million in new operating funds on the MBTA to ensure that the T can make safety and service improvements.

Baker also tried to nudge lawmakers to advance his housing and health care agendas while proposing to “transform” the state’s vocational high schools into three-shift institutions where adults and traditional students can also avail themselves of the training needed to fill jobs throughout the economy.

The governor, who is beginning the second year of his second term, delivered his annual State of the Commonwealth speech before the Legislature and assembled guests at the State House as tensions in Washington have reached a boiling point with the impeachment trial of President Trump beginning Tuesday in the Senate.

The popular Republican has also flirted with the idea of seeking a third term, and is entering a key year for his agenda ahead of the time in early 2021 when some Democrats might start to think about whether to run for the governor.

His climate commitment earned a warm reception from Democratic legislative leaders on Tuesday night, but the governor’s pledge of $135 million in new funding for the MBTA did not knock House Speaker Robert DeLeo or Senate President Karen Spilka off their interest in pursuing new revenues for transportation.

The governor did not propose any new revenues in his speech, nor did he draw a line in the sand on new taxes. With just over six months remaining of formal legislative business for the year, he instead asked lawmakers to take up bills he’s filed on housing, transportation and health care.

On climate change, Baker said “time is not our friend” and touted a still-forming regional effort to reduce carbon emissions from transportation. He said he would commit the state to achieving the “ambitious” goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, a more aggressive track than the current target that the state reduce its emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

DeLeo and Spilka said they supported Baker’s goal of net-zero emissions, and Spilka confirmed that the Senate climate bill to be rolled out Thursday will also reflect that goal. DeLeo said he, too, was supportive of trying to achieve net-zero emissions, and hoped to get a bill done this session.

Sen. Marc Pacheco, the chair of the Senate Global Warming and Climate Change Committee, has been pushing for his colleagues to take up a climate bill, and called Baker’s announcement “fantastic.”

“It helps us, I think, get an agreement between the Senate, hopefully the House, and the executive branch, so if we can do that, we can get a bill on his desk and get that adopted, and we’ll be one of the leading states in the nation,” he said.

Baker pitched his $18 billion bond bill for transportation and said the budget he intends to file on Wednesday will “include an increase of $135 million in operating funds for the T” to go towards safety and service work at the transit system.