California Gov. Gavin Newsom will take his Trump-trolling game to Belém, Brazil next week as the most prominent official to represent the U.S. at the COP30 international climate change talks.
President Trump has oft dismissed climate change as a hoax or a “con job” and is not sending representatives to the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference, which runs from Nov. 10 through 21. He has withdrawn the U.S. from international climate pacts and pledged allegiance to fossil fuels.
Newsom is stepping in to fill the void, compelled by “the complete abdication of the Trump administration that is joining the Saudis and Russia and the Gulf states,” he told Politico on Wednesday, referring to the president’s “drill baby drill” ethos embracing fossil fuel production.
The administration has “doubled down on hydrocarbons as the rest of the world is sprinting ahead on low-carbon green growth,” Newsom said. “For me, it is about our economic competitiveness, period, full stop.”
As such, Newsom “will highlight climate action as the defining economic opportunity of the 21st century,” his office said in a statement on Wednesday announcing his attendance.
“As the President of the United States turns his back on people and the planet, California is inking global partnerships focused on creating jobs and cutting toxic pollution,” Newsom said in the statement. “The economic winners of the 21st century are those who build the clean energy future. We’re doing that right now — and showing the world that climate action means jobs, clean air and lower costs.”
Newsom’s appearance at COP30 will raise his international profile ahead of a potential 2028 presidential run, coming as it does just days after his redistricting push known as Prop 50 won handily at the California ballot box.
And he’ll have plenty of company in the Trump-clapback department at COP30. Heads of state who gathered on Thursday ahead of the summit threw plenty of shade at their U.S. counterpart for skipping the talks, in which nations seek sustainable ways to keep the global temperature from increasing more than 2°C and try to cap that at 1.5°C.
“Mr. Trump is against humankind,” said Colombian President Gustavo Petro in a speech, according to Politico.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric similarly called out Trump for trashing climate mitigation efforts at the U.N. General Assembly in September, where he said the notion of human-caused climate change is a “hoax made up by people with evil intentions.”
“That is a lie,” Boric said Thursday, as quoted by Politico. “We might have legitimate discussions about how to face these things, but we cannot deny them.”
With News Wire Services
