Global Leaders Are Glad the US Isn’t Attending COP30

Here at the United Nations climate conference in Belém, the feeling is growing that US President Donald Trump’s boycott of these negotiations is actually a blessing. “I actually think it’s a good thing” that the United States did not send a delegation to COP30, Christiana Figueres, a key architect of the 2015 Paris Agreement, said at a Covering Climate Now press briefing on November 11. If the United States were there, she explained, it would only try to hinder progress. “I think they will work with the Saudis [to obstruct behind the scenes]”, she said, “but they won’t be able to do their direct intimidation.”

Figueres pointed out that the Trump administration has decided not to be a party to the Paris Agreement.Ciao, baby!” – Italian for “Goodbye, little boy!” – “You want to leave, go.”

Clean energy technologies attract twice as much global investment as fossil fuels, Figueres pointed out, even as solar and wind energy prices continue to fall and regenerative agriculture booms in the Global South. “The decarbonization of the global economy is irreversible,” she said. “This momentum is growing to the point where it is simply unstoppable, with or without the United States. »

Hours later, California Governor Gavin Newsom applauded Figueres’ comments about Trump, telling CCNow that “that’s a heck of a statement coming from the mother of the Paris Agreement.” [California] will fill this void.

Newsom had just addressed a packed news conference where U.S.-based journalists were vastly outnumbered by their international counterparts. “Don’t let what happens in Washington, D.C. shape your perception of my country,” Newsom urged. Calling Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement an “abomination,” the governor said California went from the sixth to the fourth largest economy in the world while getting two-thirds of its electricity from clean sources. Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate, said California is determined to compete with China in the global green technology market, adding: “Donald Trump does not understand how enthusiastic President Xi is about the United States’ absence from this conference.” »

At a time when deadly hurricanes and heat waves are becoming more and more frequent and mainstream media coverage is diminishing (no American television channel has sent journalists to Belém), developments at COP30 demonstrate that the climate fight is nonetheless alive and well. There’s plenty of news here at the mouth of the Amazon River, a spot chosen by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to highlight the urgency of protecting the world’s largest rainforest from a fast-approaching catastrophic tipping point.

In Brazil, forest clearing has fallen by 50 percent over the past three years, due to increased monitoring overseen by Marina Silva, a former anti-deforestation activist who is now the country’s environment minister. At COP30, Silva championed an innovative but controversial approach to combating deforestation, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility. Developed with advice from a coalition of indigenous leaders, climate scientists and international financial specialists, the TFFF is “a game changer,” said Garo Barmanian, director general of Brazil’s forest service. The guardianIt’s Jonathan Watts. The TFFF “aims to disrupt the financial logic of deforestation by raising $125 billion (£95 billion), investing it in bonds and paying the profits as rewards to countries and communities that keep their forests standing,” Watts wrote. In an unprecedented shift, the TFFF will channel 20 percent of its revenue directly to indigenous peoples, bypassing the governments, international organizations and consultants who typically gobble up the bulk of foreign aid. Peer-reviewed science demonstrates that protecting the human and property rights of indigenous peoples is the most effective way to protect the forests they inhabit from destruction.

Journalists and news outlets not in Belém still have the time and opportunity to cover COP30, and the following resources can help. Many official proceedings are broadcast on the UN YouTube channel. The guardian provides up-to-date coverage via its COP30 live blog. Info Amazonia, a network of 21 media outlets across the Amazon, offers daily dispatches in Portuguese, English and Spanish that offer valuable regional and indigenous perspectives on the summit, including activities and proposals from civil society groups. At Tuesday’s press conference, which was part of the 89 Percent Project, Figueres was asked why overwhelming international support for climate action is not always reflected in election results. “There is still a perception gap” between how people recognize the problem and what they think they can do about it, she said. It’s essential to show people how their individual choices – “my transportation choices, my choices about what I buy, my voting choices” – can improve their lives while preserving the planet. And the press, she added, plays an essential role.