US Climate Groups Ready To Battle Trump Policies At UN Climate Summit COP30

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On the eve of COP30, the US has announced that none of its officials will attend the climate talks, which will be set in Brazil’s Amazonian city of Belém. Oh, yeah: the lack of presence from “the largest, the most dominant, most important geopolitical player from the whole world” will absolutely dampen the mood of participants, says EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra.

His Majesty King Trump has pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement — twice. (The most recent US exit will not become official until January 2026.) This is the same guy who labeled global warming “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” He believes wind turbines kill whales. Trump 2.0 is in the midst of a war on climate change research, which is remarkably similar to the goals of fossil fuel companies.

But, then again, Hoekstra added that the world’s second largest emitter’s absence can also open up opportunities for new “partnerships and opportunities.” Filling in the Trump attendance gap has been on the minds of US climate groups for a while. US climate advocates, coalitions, mayors, and governors are committed to the climate summit and to carrying on with net zero goals — even as the Trump administration abdicates its responsibility to provide its citizens with a toxin-free environment in which to live.

The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling in July 2025 affirmed that a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a foundational human right, acknowledging that it is necessary for the enjoyment of all other human rights. As a result, COP30 may become more fractious than ever — enhanced regulatory incentives may pressure companies and financiers to avoid liability for the omissions or inaction at any cost.

The November 3 publication from the UN states that, while impacts of climate change that may once have seemed irrelevant, they are “steadily becoming material risks to banks and insurers, including the human impact of the changes that are occurring.” The hope is that regulators and investors will seek pathways to drive positive action on this front, as “financial institutions now have a chance to be proactive, demonstrate leadership, and position themselves at the forefront of emerging opportunities in sustainable finance.”

“The United States … has always been a bad faith actor when it comes to climate action and the biggest blocker of meaningful progress,” said Rachel Rose Jackson, a research director at Corporate Accountability. “It has walked away from doing its fair share time and time again; the only difference now is that its bad intentions are on public display for all to see more clearly.” Jackson said she expected that even without an official delegation, the US will still have its “tentacles all over the UN climate talks,” working on the sidelines with other participants such as the EU and Canada to “orchestrate their great escape from climate action. And it still controls the purse strings.”

As is always the case in the western world, money talks, and bull***t walks.

A Who’s Who of US Climate Groups at COP30

America Is All In, Climate Mayors, and the US Climate Alliance announced via a press release that a US delegation of more than 100 local leaders will participate in COP30. The delegation will be led by US Climate Alliance co-chair Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, America Is All In managing co-chair Gina McCarthy, and Climate Mayors chair and C40 Cities vice chair Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. Participating US leaders will reinforce their commitment to the Paris Agreement’s goals and share local climate solutions that are lowering energy costs, growing jobs, and cutting dangerous pollution in the US.

“This is a really important moment to illustrate that Trump does not represent the entirety, or even anywhere near a majority, of us,” Collin Rees, US program manager at the environmental non-profit Oil Change International, told the Guardian. “Those actions can help put pressure on negotiators,” said Rees. “And they can also help build people’s movements, build power and confidence to go back to national capitals and provincial capitals or state level capitals and continue that advocacy from the bottom up.”

“Without the US, there’s still a chance the world could come together in Belém,” Claudio Angelo, the international policy coordinator at Observatório do Clima, a coalition of climate organizations, who is based in Brasília, said, as reported by Nature.

Even if the Trump administration doesn’t see the value in these climate rulings, climate action proponents will attend COP30 laden with drafts of their own policy plans. It’s a way to provide US climate leadership in a time of uncertainty. They want to be seen as a cohesive, conspicuous force to shape COP30 negotiations and to drive global climate action forward.

Negotiators are keenly aware that more US homes and businesses are getting their power from renewable sources than ever before — and in greater amounts. The rest of the world is also buying in, even if the US right-wing government wants to pollute, baby, pollute.

“Yes, the federal administration has changed radically … but the actual US climate movement is still here,” said John Noel, senior strategist at Greenpeace International who formerly worked on the US team. At COP30, Noel continued, US-based campaigners plan to “reassure our global comrades and colleagues that there’s still a robust movement in the states to maintain pressure around various forms of climate action.”  One objective is to foreground “polluter pay’ mechanisms in a highly visible way at COP30, which are already getting high praise due to laws requiring polluters to pay climate damages in Vermont and New York.

“We’ve got to show the rest of the world that the administration’s assault on the climate is unpopular,” said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, who will attend COP30. “During this dark turn,” Su said, “this type of physical collective showing humanity couldn’t be more important.”

“There are different trends showing that the rest of the world is still working towards getting their economy more resilient for a more prosperous future, and that prosperous future cannot happen without taking into account the climate,” said Yamide Dagnet, the Washington DC-based senior vice-president of international work at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

At COP30, the Under2 Coalition will champion the essential role of states and regions in delivering global climate goals – turning ambition into action and laying the groundwork for the next decade.

• Drive implementation: Showcase how subnational actors are delivering measurable climate results across energy, nature, resilience, and just transition;
• Champion subnational leadership: Position governors, premiers, and ministers as essential implementers of the Paris Agreement and national climate targets; and
• Unlocking finance and partnerships: Promote the support needed to accelerate progress, bridging ambition and delivery with a COP31-ready subnational climate finance framework.

The protests are expected to be the largest seen at any COP conference in years.