 "California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference after the federal government's demobilisation of 2,000 National Guard members, in Downey, California, US, on July 16, 2025. (Photo: Daniel Cole/Reuters)")
In a bold entrance at the UN climate summit, Gavin Newsom, governor of California, declared he was stepping into the breach left by Washington and positioned himself and his state as beacons of climate-action leadership.
With the US federal delegation conspicuously absent, Newsom wasted no time in drawing contrasts. He blasted the Trump administration for withdrawing the United States from the landmark Paris accord — on two occasions. As he put it, “It is ‘an abomination that he has twice, not once, pulled away from the accords.’”
At the summit held in Belém, the Brazilian Amazon city hosting Cop30, the California governor also emphasised the economic stakes of climate action. “It’s a moral commitment, it’s an economic imperative,” he said, adding that California — the world’s fourth-largest economy — is “two-thirds powered by renewables.”
Of the US climate stance he sternly declared: “The United States of America is as dumb as we want to be on this topic, but the state of California is not.”
In a pointed barb aimed directly at Trump, the Governor reportedly labeled him “temporary,” suggesting that the former President’s influence and policies regarding climate change will not last.
Newsom’s presence at Cop30, alongside many state and city leaders filling the space left by the national government, signals a shift: subnational entities rising to fill the leadership vacuum in global climate policy.
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View AllAs he walked the summit halls, Newsom effectively positioned California as the international face of US climate ambition — contrasting hard with the federal government’s absence and casting a long shadow over the policy landscape ahead of 2028.