California Gov. Gavin Newsom was the most prominent American official to attend the COP30 global climate conference in Belém, Brazil, this week - using the platform to criticize the absent Trump administration.
The White House mocked the trip, noting California's continued rank among the highest in U.S. energy costs.
Newsom's office put out a summary of his visit to the conference, saying it shows California is "leading by example" and proving that "climate action and economic growth go hand in hand."
"As Donald Trump abandons American climate leadership, California continues and accelerates its climate action, urging global investors to embrace the technologies and infrastructure driving the clean energy future," his office said in the release.
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On Tuesday, Newsom was scheduled to deliver remarks in his role as co-chair of America Is All In, which describes itself as a broad coalition of non-federal actors in the U.S. committed to ambitious climate action. Later, he was scheduled to attend a state-governor's coalition called U.S. Climate Alliance, and then travel into the Amazon rainforest to meet with "community stewards."
"While Donald Trump is handing the future to China, California is proving that climate action, business growth, supporting workers, and good-paying jobs go hand in hand," Newsom said.
"We're not turning backwards to the failed policies of the past - California is fighting for a clean-energy future, even as President Trump bends the knee to his Gulf-State patrons and takes a nap as the world burns."
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Newsom made the case during remarks at the coinciding Milken Institute Global Investors Symposium in Sao Paulo that California has proved it can balance climate and environmental stewardship with economic growth.
"We're running the fourth-largest economy in the world [on] 67%; two-thirds clean energy," he said.
Newsom claimed that nine out of 10 days this year, California operated on 100% non-fossil-fuel energy for at least part of the day:
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"I don't know if there's another jurisdiction in the world that can lay claim to that."
"We are proving the paradigm: The genius of 'and', not the tyranny of 'or'," he said in remarks to Milken CEO Rich Ditizio.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers cited California's consumer energy costs, and claimed that Newsom would not be attending such a summit if he was sincere about the issue as thousands of acres reportedly had to be cleared for a "special purpose highway" into the rainforest.
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Belem officials denied the highway, Avenida Liberdade, was built expressly for the summit, according to reports.
"Governor Newscum (sic) flew all the way to Brazil to tout the Green New Scam, while the people of California are paying some of the highest energy prices in the country: Embarrassing," Rogers said.
"It's time for Newscum and other countries to drop the climate façade. President Trump will not allow the best interest of the American people to be jeopardized by the Green Energy Scam. These Green Dreams are killing other countries, but will not kill ours thanks to President Trump's commonsense energy agenda," she added.
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At the conference, former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee claimed to the COP30 conference that the U.S. has not pulled out of the Paris Climate accords.
"One part of the United States has, and that's the federal government," he told Germany's Deutsche Welle.
At a business conference in Greece this week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright commented on the Trump administration's absence, calling the confab "essentially a hoax."
"It's not an honest organization looking to better human lives," Wright said, adding that he may drop in on the 2026 conference to deliver some "common sense."
