The temperature at Cop30: Trump’s absence better than a US wrecking ball | Cop30

For years, countries around the world have pressed the United States to join them in tackling the climate crisis and to show that it is serious about taking action. Now, as crucial United Nations climate talks continue in Brazil this week, other countries are quietly hoping the United States stays away.

Under Donald Trump, who has called the climate crisis “the greatest fraud ever committed on earth,” the United States has not only retreated from climate action but also openly agitated for further global fossil fuel use and for other countries to subvert their own climate policies.

““If you don’t move away from this green scam, your country will fail,” the US president told leaders in his speech to the UN in September. “If you want to be great again, you need strong borders and traditional energy sources.”

There was a sense of relief among some diplomats after the White House said no senior representatives would attend this week’s COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil. “President Trump will not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to achieve vague climate goals that are killing other countries, a White House spokesman said.

America’s commitment to curbing global warming has waxed and waned over the years, but the United States now appears not only disinterested but actively fighting for the other side. “Before, this was benign neglect, even in Trump’s first term,” said a former senior State Department official. “Now the situation is the opposite, they do not want to participate, they do not want others to participate either.

“If the choice is to have no United States or to have a United States that is there as a spoiler to ruin and disrupt everything, then I think most countries would prefer no United States,” the former official added. “So, when you think about it, we’re now to the right of Saudi Arabia. The Saudis drive a hard bargain, but they accept the Paris agreement. They’re not against the word ‘climate’.”

Trump was not present at last week’s leaders’ summit as a curtain raiser for COP30 as expected, but the US president loomed over the event as leaders of Colombia and Chile called him a liar for denying climate science.

According to Todd Stern, the chief U.S. climate negotiator during Barack Obama’s presidency, U.S. attitudes on climate have become more hostile than they were during Trump’s first term or under George W. Bush, when the U.S. refused to ratify the Kyoto protocol.

“The president has made it clear that he wants to withdraw from the Paris agreement, so it doesn’t surprise me that they didn’t send anyone because they’re not interested in that,” Stern said. “I don’t think they can add anything useful. There’s a much more aggressive management overall now.”

Any US presence at the Belém talks, where countries will work on issues such as new emissions reduction targets and climate finance, could repeat the extraordinary scenes seen when nations met in London last month to ratify plans In exchange for a small tax on greenhouse gases emissions from transportation.

US representatives at the talks were accused of using bullying-like behavior to force countries to abandon the plan. reportedly It threatens to charge higher fees for negotiators and their families to dock in American ports and even impose visa restrictions on U.S. travel. Trump called the proposal a “global green new fraud tax on shipping” and demanded that it be blocked. The tactics appear to have worked; The pollution fee has been postponed for at least a year.

“It could have had a microscopic impact on the U.S. economy, especially compared to Trump’s tariff war, and yet they went full thuggery to get it dropped at the last minute,” said Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

Although the United States is unlikely to appear in Brazil, the state department office that deals with climate issues is now operational. shuttered and there was no US presence at the UN climate meetings in Germany, and then Peru This year – Whitehouse said countries should be wary of an “Al Capone-style attack” at COP30 by the Trump administration, possibly the European Union, on a mechanism to tax imports based on the amount of planet-warming pollution they create.

“I think if you let this administration intimidate you, they will take all the land you give them and come back for more,” he said. “You only have a chance when you stand and fight and step back.”

Adopting an unapologetically “taste, baby, drill” approach, Trump has struck individual deals with countries such as Japan and South Korea to increase fossil fuel production. promise To buy more US oil and gas from the European Union.

The EU’s climate rules have been targeted by the White House, as have wind farms in the UK. “We don’t do wind because wind is a disaster,” Trump said at a press conference with British prime minister Keir Starmer in September. “Obviously this is a very expensive joke.”

Although Trump has torn up climate policies and halted renewable energy projects in the US, this is unlikely to hinder the energy transition globally. The International Energy Agency says the world is ready to produce approximately 4,600 gigawatts of clean energy between now and 2030. found recentlyThis is nearly double the amount built in the previous five-year period, which is in turn twice the amount built in the five years before that.

“The thing about climate change is you can’t stop the waves,” Stern said. “There is a strong, irreversible movement towards clean energy around the world.

“This administration may want to return to the future, but that’s not going to happen. Countries in Polis will show no interest in the United States at the national level.”

But Trump’s antipathy towards climate action is the most obvious manifestation of the general malaise with global climate policies in recent years. Governments appear more keen to tackle inflation rather than carbon pollution, and almost every country is not doing enough to reduce emissions or provide financing for those worst affected by worsening floods, storms and droughts.

Some climate advocates have moved on to other issues, even downplaying the severity of the crisis. Trump recently praised fellow billionaire Bill Gates’ apparent pushback on climate action: Published on Truth Social: “I (WE!) just won the War on the Climate Change Hoax. Bill Gates finally admitted that he was completely WRONG about this. It took courage to do this, and for that we are all grateful. MAGA!!!”

The most vulnerable countries are now looking around to see if any leaders will step forward. “The US withdrawal from the Paris agreement leaves a gap that urgently needs to be filled,” said Ilana Seid, president of the Alliance of Small Island States, which advocates for low-lying countries most threatened by a warmer world.

Smaller, developing countries don’t have the resources to recover from the devastation wrought by massive storms like Hurricane Melissa, which hit Jamaica last month and was likely made worse by an overheated atmosphere and ocean, Seid said.

“Due to larger countries’ indifference to climate action, we are falling short of the 1.5C target and heading towards even more devastating impacts,” he said. “This is a poignant example of the disproportionate and inequitable impact on vulnerable people who contribute least to climate change.”

The U.S. government may not be there, but about 100 U.S. governors, members of Congress and state and city officials are will still go To Belém to argue that much of the United States is still committed to fighting the climate crisis. Cop30’s mission will be to keep despair at bay until a rapidly warming world refocuses on the climate emergency that is worsening many climate changes. other problems are now attracting attention.

“No country, including the United States, led by the anti-science and increasingly authoritarian Trump administration, can stop global climate action,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“The question is: Will it accelerate fast enough, given the challenging space we’re in with the climate crisis? We have a rapidly narrowing window. The science is absolutely stark.”