At Brazilian climate summit, Newsom positions California as a stand-in for the U.S.

BELEM, Brazil — The vast halls of the Amazon’s newly built climate summit center echoed with the hum of air conditioners and the footsteps of delegates from around the world—scientists, diplomats, indigenous leaders, and energy managers; they were all coming together for two weeks of heated negotiations.

Then Gov. Gavin Newsom turned the corner, flanked by staff and security guards. They moved together through the halls Tuesday as media poured in and cellphone cameras rose into the air.

“Hero!” a woman shouted. “Stay safe, we need you,” another attendee said. Others did not hide their confusion as to who the man with the slicked-back, graying hair was who was causing such a commotion.

“I’m here because I don’t want the United States to be a footnote in this conference,” Newsom said as he attended a packed news conference on his first day at the United Nations climate policy summit, known as COP30.

In less than a year, the United States has gone from rallying nations to fight climate change to completely rejecting science. Under President TrumpHis brash management style grew in part from his reality show roots.

Newsom engineered his own evolution in dealing with Trump; It has progressed from sharp but reasonable criticism to name-calling and theatrical attacks on the president and his Republican allies. Newsom’s approach adds fire to America’s political spectacle; part governance, part made-for-TV drama. However, when it comes to climate, it’s not all about performance.

California’s carbon market and zero-emission mandates have given the state great clout at summits such as COP30, where its policies are seen as both durable and exportable. The state has invested billions of dollars in renewable resources, battery storage and electric buildings and vehicles, and has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 21% since 2000, even as its economy grew 81%.

“Absolutely,” he said when asked whether the state would side with the United States in climate talks. “And I think the world sees us in that light, as a stable partner, a historic partner… in the absence of American leadership. And not just the absence of leadership, but a doubling down of stupidity in terms of global leadership on clean energy.”

Newsom has maintained a combative presence online; He uses sarcasm with Trump and turns to satirical tactics that mirror the president’s tactics, especially on social media. Critics argued this contributed to lowering the bar when it comes to political discourse, but Newsom said he doesn’t see it that way.

“I try to emphasize that,” Newsom said, adding that in a normal political environment, leaders should model civility and respect. “But right now we have an invasive species called Donald Trump in climate parlance, and we need to get the word out.”

Newsom recently scored a political victory at home with Proposition 50, the ballot measure he championed against Trump’s effort to redraw congressional maps in Republican-led states. En route to Brazil, he celebrated his victory with a pass in Houston; A rally attended by Texas Democrats looked more like a presidential campaign stop than a policy event; It was one of several moments in recent months that invited speculation about a White House race he insists he did not initiate.

These questions followed him to Brazil. This was the first issue raised by a group of Brazilian journalists in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and financial center; Newsom acknowledged flying in to talk to climate investors on Monday made it sound more like a campaign speech.

“I think this needs to happen,” Newson said, talking points still in his pocket, yellow business cards from an earlier meeting. “I think people need to understand what’s going on, otherwise you’re wasting everyone’s time.”

In a dimly lit luxury hotel adorned with Brazilian artwork and deep armchairs, Newsom displayed the well-practiced turn of a politician dodging questions about his future. His most direct response about his presidential hopes came in a recent interview on “CBS News Sunday Morning.” In this interview, Newsom was asked if he would seriously consider running for the White House after the 2026 midterm elections. Newsom responded: “Yes, otherwise I would be lying.”

Asked how often The Times has asked about his plans for 2028 in recent days, he laughed and quickly backpedaled.

“It’s not about me,” she said, before pulling an malaria pill from her dress pocket and chasing him with coffee borrowed from a nearby jug. “It’s about this moment and people’s concerns and anxieties about this moment.”

UCLA environmental law professor Ann Carlson said Newsom’s appearance in Brazil was symbolically important because it took aim at the federal government’s decades-old authority to enforce California’s own environmental standards.

“California has continued to signal that it will play a leadership role,” he said.

The Trump administration confirmed to The Times that no senior federal representatives will attend COP30.

“President Trump will not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to achieve vague climate goals that are killing other countries,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.

Trump, on the other hand, told world leaders at the United Nations in September that climate change was a “hoax” and “the greatest fraud ever committed on the planet.”

Since returning to office for a second term, Trump has rescinded funding for major clean energy projects such as California’s hydrogen hub and moved to revoke the state’s long-held authority to set vehicle emissions standards stricter than those of the federal government. He also retreated Paris climate agreementA seminal agreement signed a decade ago in which world leaders set a goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and preferably below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). This move is seen as crucial to preventing the worst effects of climate change.

Chilean and Colombian leaders called Trump a liar for denying climate science, while Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warned broadly that extremist forces were producing fake news and “dooming future generations to live on a planet forever changed by global warming.”

Terry Tamminen, former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, suggested that Newsom’s attendance at COP30 further increased the spotlight on the governor given the Trump administration’s absence.

“If the governor of Delaware leaves, it might not matter,” Tamminen said. “But if our governor leaves, he leaves. That sends a message to the world that we’re still in this together.”

The US Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of state leaders, said three governors from the US attended COP30-related events in Brazil: Newsom, Tony Evers of Wisconsin and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico.

Despite the warm reception Newsom received in Belém, environmentalists in California have recently questioned his resolve.

In September, Newsom signed a package of bills extending the state’s signature cap-and-trade program through 2045. The program, renamed cap-and-invest, limits greenhouse gas emissions and raises billions of dollars for the state’s climate priorities. But he also gave final approval to a bill that would allow oil and gas companies to drill as many as 2,000 new wells a year in Kern County through 2036. Environmentalists called this backsliding; Newsom called that a realism, given the looming closure of refineries in the state and the threat of driving up gas prices.

“This is not an ideological exercise,” he said. “This is a very pragmatic thing.”

Leah Stokes, a political scientist at UC Santa Barbara, called his record “pretty complicated.”

“He is one of the leaders in many ways,” he said. “But some of the decisions he’s made, especially recently, don’t move us in that good direction on climate.”

Newsom is expected to return to the climate summit on Wednesday before heading deeper into the Amazon, where he plans to visit reforestation projects. The governor said he wanted to see firsthand the region often referred to as the “lungs of the world.”

“This isn’t just admiring the absorption of carbon from rainforests,” Newsom said. “But to imbibe a deeper spiritual connection to this subject that connects us all… I think that’s really important in a world that could use a little bit more of that.”