At the UN climate conference in Belém, sentiment is growing that US president Donald Trump’s boycott of these talks is, in fact, a blessing. “I actually think it is a good thing” that the US didn’t send a delegation to COP30, said Christiana Figueres, a key architect of the 2015 Paris Agreement, at a Covering Climate Now press briefing on Tuesday. If the US were here, she explained, it would only try to obstruct progress. “I do think they’ll be working through the Saudis [to obstruct behind the scenes],” she said, “but they won’t be able to do their direct bullying.”
Figueres noted that the Trump administration has decided not to be a party to the Paris Agreement, “To which I go, ‘Ciao, bambino!’ [Italian for “Bye-bye, little boy!”] You want to leave, leave.”
Clean energy technologies are attracting twice as much global investment as fossil fuels, Figueres pointed out, even as the prices of solar and wind power keep plummeting and regenerative agriculture is surging across the Global South. “The decarbonization of the world economy is irreversible,” she declared. “The momentum is building to the point where it is simply unstoppable, with or without the United States.”
Hours later, California governor Gavin Newsom applauded Figueres’s comments about Trump, telling CCNow that “that is a hell of a statement coming from the mother of the Paris Agreement. We [California] will fill that void.”
Newsom had just addressed a packed press conference where US-based reporters were overwhelmingly outnumbered by their international counterparts. “Don’t let what happens in Washington, D.C., shape your perception of my country,” Newsom urged. Calling Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement “an abomination,” the governor said California has grown from the world’s sixth largest to its fourth largest economy while getting two-thirds of its electricity from clean sources. Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate, said that California is determined to compete with China for the global market in green technologies, adding, “Donald Trump doesn’t understand how enthusiastic President Xi is that the US is nowhere to be found at this conference.”
At a time when deadly hurricanes and heat waves are becoming ever more frequent yet mainstream media coverage is dwindling (not one US TV network sent reporters to Belém), developments at COP30 demonstrate that the climate fight is nevertheless very much alive. Plenty of news is being made here at the mouth of the Amazon River, a location chosen by Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to underscore the urgency of protecting the world’s largest rainforest from a catastrophic, fast-approaching tipping point.
There’s still time and opportunity for journalists and news outlets not present in Belém to cover COP30, and the following resources can help. Many official proceedings are streamed on the UN’s YouTube channel. The Guardian provides up-to-the-minute coverage via its COP30 live blog. Info Amazonia, a network of 21 news outlets across the Amazon, provides daily dispatches in Portuguese, English, and Spanish that offer invaluable regional and Indigenous perspectives on the summit, including the activities and proposals of civil society groups.
In Tuesday’s press briefing, which was part of CCNow’s 89 Percent Project, Figueres was asked why the massive international support for climate action isn’t always reflected in election results. “There continues to be a perceptual gap” between people’s recognition of the problem and what they think they can do about it, she said. Showing people how their individual choices — “my choices of transport, my choices of what I purchase, my choices of how I vote” — can make their own lives better while also safeguarding the planet is key. And the press, she added, plays a vital role.
From Us
Radar Clima webinar. Acompaña a CCNow en una sesión de una hora el 2 de diciembre a las 12pm ET sobre los resultados de la COP30 y cómo desarrollar historias humanas y con el foco en las soluciones. En este seminario web analizaremos los principales resultados, acuerdos y desencuentros de Belém y cómo convertirlos en coberturas relevantes, humanas, y centradas en las soluciones. RSVP.
Hurricane season recap. CCNow and Climate Central co-hosted a webinar recapping 2025’s historic hurricane season with panelists Jeff Berardelli, Chief Meteorologist & Climate Specialist at WFLA; Carlos Berríos Polanco, reporter for 9 Millones; and Bernadette Woods Placky, VP for Engagement & Chief Meteorologist for Climate Central. Watch a recording.
“Prep Your COP30 Coverage.” Over the past week, CCNow has hosted three webinars for journalists covering COP30 — on the history of the COP process, the key issues at stake in Belém, and practical tips on identifying stories, sources, and more. All three webinars are available to watch in this YouTube playlist.
Noteworthy Stories
State of play. Some are calling COP30 the most consequential since COP21, which delivered the landmark Paris Agreement. “The Paris agreement is our mandate; Belém is the test,” says Ban Ki-moon, who was UN secretary general then. Fiona Harvey lays out the stakes for The Guardian…
Indigenous voices. Brazil president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vowed that Indigenous perspectives are a priority at COP30, but will they be heard and considered by negotiators? On Tuesday, hundreds of Indigenous protestors stormed the conference venue saying more needs to be done to include them in negotiations. By Amanda Magnani for Grist…
Media blackout. The Trump administration isn’t the only US entity that declined to send a delegation to COP30. “Not one of the US TV networks have sent cameras or reporters to Belem to cover COP30,” notes CCNow’s Mark Herstgaard. “It’s a tragic abdication of our civic responsibility to inform the public and hold power to account.” By Jonathan Watts for The Guardian…
Worthy listicle. Ten years after the Paris Agreement was signed, has anything really changed? The New York Times’ Somini Sengupta “cuts through the noise” listing 10 “big things” that have happened in the past decade.
The ‘People’s COP.’ In an op-ed published in Politico EU, Laurence Tubiana, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Anne Hidalgo, and Eduardo Paes write that COP30 presents an “opportunity for rebooting the relationship between citizens and the climate regime,” noting that “in most countries, more than 80 percent of citizens support action… [and] “69 percent of people globally say they’re willing to contribute 1 percent of their income to help tackle the climate crisis.”
Quote of the Week
“Either we decide to change by choice, together, or we will be imposed change by tragedy. We can change. But we must do it together.”
— Andre Correa do Lago, COP30 president, in a letter to negotiators this Sunday
Resources & Events
Tracking disinformation. Brazil president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the UN climate summit COP30 by dubbing it the “COP of Truth,” vowing to “impose a new defeat on the deniers” who spread disinformation to slow climate action. A new report from Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), details the Brazilian disinformation environment leading up to COP30, along with its history at past COPs. For updates, DeSmog will be producing a series of disinformation reports from the conference. Check out their coverage.
COP30 Position Tracker. Carbon Brief has launched a new tracker, “Who Wants What at the COP30 Climate Change Summit,” showing party positions on key issues, such as adaptation, the so-called “Baku to Belém Roadmap,” the just transition, the loss and damage fund, and more — all of which will be under negotiation in Brazil.
COP30 Insider Pass. Carbon Brief is offering a “two-week, all-access package designed for those who need much more than headlines.” For USD $13, subscribers can access an invite-only WhatsApp group, receive a dedicated daily newsletter, and attend members-only webinars. Learn more.
Honoring scientists. The Courageous Scientists Awards will be presented to scientists from Peru, Nigeria, Italy, Solomon Islands, and the US on Saturday, November 15, at 6pm CET in Vienna. Learn more.
Jobs, Etc.
CNN is hiring a vice president for weather (three locations). CNN Weather is hiring a news reporter and a video editor and producer (Atlanta, Ga.). The Los Angeles Times is hiring an energy and climate reporter. EcoRI in Rhode Island is hiring an environmental reporter. Grist is hiring an Interlochen regional reporter (Grand Traverse Bay, Mich.).
Grist is offering grants of up to $5,000 available for reporting on climate and environmental justice in the rural US. Learn more and apply.
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