President Trump has often dismissed climate change as a hoax or a ‘scam’ does not send representatives to the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conferencethat runs from November 10 to 21. He has withdrawn the US from international climate treaties and pledged allegiance to fossil fuels.
Newsom steps in to fill the void, forced to do so by “the complete abdication of the Trump administration that joins the Saudis, Russia and the Gulf states,” he told Politico on Wednesday, referring to the president’s “drill baby drill” ethos, which embraces fossil fuel production.The administration has “doubled down on hydrocarbons as the rest of the world makes progress on low-carbon green growth,” Newsom said. “For me, it’s about our economic competitiveness, period.”
As such, Newsom will “highlight climate action as the defining economic opportunity of the 21st century,” his office said Wednesday in a statement announcing his presence.
“As President of the United States turns his back on people and the planetCalifornia is engaged in global partnerships aimed at creating jobs and reducing toxic pollution,” Newsom said in the statement. “The economic winners of the 21st century will be those who build the clean energy future. We are doing that 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 presidential run in 2028, just as is the case just days after his redistricting move known as Prop 50 won handily at the ballot box in California.
And he will have plenty of company in the Trump clapback department at COP30. Heads of state meeting ahead of the summit on Thursday threw heavy shade at their US counterpart for skipping the talks, in which countries are seeking sustainable ways to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2°C and seek to limit them to 1.5°C.
“Mr Trump is against humanity,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in a speech, according to Politico.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric similarly called out Trump for bungling climate mitigation efforts at the UN General Assembly in September, where he said the idea of man-made climate change is a “hoax concocted by people with evil intentions.”
“That’s a lie,” Boric said Thursday, as quoted by Politico. “We may have legitimate discussions about how to confront these things, but we cannot deny them.”
With News Wire services
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