bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

With US President Donald Trump skipping the UN’s climate summit in the Amazon, California Governor Gavin Newsom grabbed the spotlight on Tuesday and unleashed a barrage of attacks on the fossil fuel agenda of his political nemesis.
The well-coiffed Democrat - seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate - blasted Trump for twice leaving the Paris climate accord and for “doubling down on stupid” through his support of Big Oil.
Newsom said a future Democratic administration would rejoin the Paris Agreement “without hesitation”.
“It’s a moral commitment, it’s an economic imperative,” Newsom said in response to a question in Belem, the Brazilian Amazon city in northern Para state hosting the climate summit known as Cop30.

It is “an abomination that he has twice, not once, pulled away from the accords”.
After returning to office in January, Trump withdrew the United States from the landmark Paris deal for a second time - the first was during his first term - and he has sneered at the idea of human-caused planetary warming, calling it a “con job”.
Newsom’s first appearance of the day came alongside Helder Barbalho, governor of Para, where he touted California’s green credentials between bites of tropical fruit and sips of acai juice - noting that the Golden State, the world’s fourth-largest economy, was two-thirds powered by renewables.
He then launched into a whirlwind of meetings and press events with officials from Germany’s Baden-Wurttemberg state, Brazil’s minister for Indigenous Peoples and the Brazilian president of Cop30 - all the while trailed by large media scrums normally reserved for national leaders.
Still, there were limits. Regional leaders have no part of official negotiations at Cop30, which opened Monday with urgent calls to stay the course on climate action.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, who also attended events on Tuesday, acknowledged these constraints.

“Certainly our meetings with leaders at the UN and others was to demonstrate that we’re interested in any possibility that does more about that direct negotiation and representation,” she said.
Her aim in coming, she added, was to show that “when the federal government leans in, we do more, and when they lean out, we do more. It’s both”.
But Christiana Figueres, an architect of the Paris agreement, said the summit was better off without Trump’s government showing up.
“I actually think it is a good thing,” she said, suggesting that while the United States may work behind the scenes with petrostates including Saudi Arabia, “they cannot take the floor” and directly bully other nations.
Even without a seat at the table, US states and cities have concrete power.
A recent analysis by the University of Maryland found that if these governments ramp up their efforts - and a climate-friendly president is elected in 2028 - US emissions could fall by well over 50 per cent by 2035, approaching the 61-66 per cent reduction targeted by Biden’s administration.
“The president can’t throw a switch and turn everything off - that’s not how our system works,” Nate Hultman, who led the report, said.
The market-driven green shift remains a strong factor including in US states with climate-hostile leadership, like Texas, the country’s renewable energy generation leader last year, added Hultman, who previously worked for Democratic presidents.
Even so there were questions over how far state-level action could go without federal support. Trump’s Republicans recently passed a law bringing an early end to clean energy tax credits, seen as a potentially crippling blow to the renewable sector.
Beyond pushing for more drilling at home and declaring war on green energy, Trump’s administration recently torpedoed international efforts to impose a carbon tax on shipping by vowing reprisals against countries that backed the plan.
Newsom urged nations to hold firm against further intimidation efforts, saying it was vital to remember “Trump is temporary” and that “you stand up to a bully”.


China praises joint effort with US after pair sentenced for drug-related money laundering

DeepSeek’s game-changing rise, China’s robot boot camps: 7 AI 2025 breakthroughs

Scientist Hu Haitao leaves US for China, Mexico tariff shock: 5 weekend reads you missed

Chinese AI chipmaker Biren kicks off bookbuilding for US$624 million Hong Kong IPO

United States

At Cop30, California Governor Newsom seizes spotlight and takes aim at Trump

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to journalists after a press conference at the Cop30 summit. Photo: AFP

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaking at a session at the We Mean Business Pavilion during Cop30. Photo: AP

The Los Angeles downtown skyline. California is just one of 50 US states, but its economy is the world’s fourth-largest. Photo: AFP

Protesters force way into Cop30 summit venue in Brazil, clash with security

Demonstrators, including Indigenous people force their way into the venue hosting the Cop30 summit in Belem, Brazil. Photo: Reuters

A protester holds a mobile phone while standing in front of security staff. Photo: Reuters

Protesters clash with security as they breach a restricted area at the Cop30 venue. Photo: EPA

Brazil’s Lula opens Cop30 demanding courage – and cash – to save the planet

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the Cop30 climate talks on Thursday. Photo: handout


Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang at the Cop30 climate summit on Thursday. Photo: handout 

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (left) meets with Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang on the eve of the Cop30 climate summit in Belem, Brazil. Photo: Xinhua

How Cop30 can advance a new template for South-South climate leadership

Leaders gather during the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility in the framework of the Cop30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belem, Para State, Brazil, on November 6. Photo: AFP

As Cop30 begins in Brazil amid intensifying climate change, what’s the latest in science?

A Marine helps a woman in a flooded street in Poza Rica in Mexico’s Veracruz state in October. Photo: AP

Residents work to stop flames from a burning home spreading in Tuolumne County, California, during a wildfire in September. Photo: AP

A woman pours water on a man to help with the intense heat in Death Valley National Park in California in August. Photo: AP

Rio raids, Venezuela crisis threaten to overshadow Brazil’s UN climate summit

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visiting a settlement in Belem ahead of the Cop30 UN Climate Summit. Photo: AP

Environmental activists in Rio de Janeiro project images of Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and US President Donald Trump, demanding action on climate change. Photo: AFP

Volunteers pose outside the Cop30 venue in Belem, Brazil. Photo: AFP

Police involved in the October 28 raids in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: AP

News

World

Americas

United States & Canada

With the US president absent, the California governor and 2028 prospect called Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord an ‘abomination’


With the US president absent, the California governor and 2028 prospect called Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord an ‘abomination’.


At Cop30, California Governor Newsom seizes spotlight and takes aim at Trump

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With the US president absent, the California governor and 2028 prospect called Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord an ‘abomination’

With the US president absent, the California governor and 2028 prospect called Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Accord an ‘abomination’