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The Trump administration appears to be sitting out this month’s United Nations climate talks known as Cop30, telling the Guardian it will not deploy any high-level representatives to the negotiations.
But dozens of US subnational leaders attend to promote their climate efforts.
“Whatever our nationalized policy is or isn’t, the people on the ground locally are getting it done, committing to partnerships and economic development that will last generations and create the kind of clean energy future we are all relying on,” said New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, on a press call.
Grishalm, who addressed reporters from from a pre-Cop30 summit in Brazil, will travel to the negotiations with more than 100 other state and local US leaders. Organized by the subnational climate coalitions America Is All In, Climate Mayors, and the US Climate Alliance, the group will also include Wisconsin governor Tony Evers, Phoenix mayor Kate Gallego and others.
“This is a mighty coalition representing some two thirds of Americans, three quarters of our GDP and over 50% of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Todd Stern, formerly special envoy for climate change under Barack Obama.
States are competing in a “friendly race to the top”, said Grishalm, working to slash planet-heating pollution while boosting their economies.
“I hope that this is contagious,” she said.
The press call came one day after elections across the US, which delivered broad success for Democrats and progressives.
“Over 30 climate mayors won last night,” said Gina McCarthy, who served as a climate adviser to Joe Biden and environment chief under Obama.
On the call, Grishalm said New Mexico has in recent years increased oil and gas production but cut its methane output in half.
“We are showing that all of the above is here today,” she said, referring to a policy approach that supports the development and use of renewables and fossil fuels alike, which Donald Trump has eschewed.
Yet top United Nations climate experts have long warned that climate action requires the rapid phaseout of fossil fuels. That is one reason Keanu Arpels-Josiah, lead organizer with youth-led activist group Fridays For Future NYC, was so excited by Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York City mayoral election this week. A self-described ecosocialist, Mamdani has been a vocal backer of policies to phase fossil fuels out of buildings and efforts to stop the buildout of a gas pipeline.
“He really stands in contrast to many Democratic governors who are trying to claim climate leadership … while continuing to push forward fossil fuel expansion in their states,” Arpels-Josiah, who plans to attend Cop30, said. At the climate talks, his organization will highlight Mamdani’s win as a sign that Americans are ready for “true climate-justice aligned policy” that “pushes towards the end of fossil fuel extractivism”.
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At Cop30, nations will discuss the implementation of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, from which he pulled the US on his first day back in office this year. In the days ahead of the negotiations, US interior secretary Doug Burgum appeared to have visited the world’s second-largest offshore oil field in the world while in the United Arab Emirates – a signal that international climate efforts are not a priority.
Still, concerns abound that officials will not ignore the climate talks completely, with some fearing they will attempt to thwart climate action from afar. The Guardian has contacted the White House for comment.
But even if the Trump administration attempts to intervene, it will not be successful, said Stern.
“I don’t know whether they will try to intervene in any way, but I honestly don’t think countries here are going to care about it very much,” he said. “Countries of the world are in this agreement, and they’re not leaving.”
