After bully-like behavior last month over a small emissions levy, diplomats will be relieved if the US stays away from climate talks
For years, countries around the world pressed the US to engage with them in addressing the climate crisis and to show it was serious about taking action. Now, with key United Nations climate talks under way in Brazil this week, other nations have been quietly hoping the US stays well away.
Under Donald Trump, who has called the climate crisis “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”, the US has not only pulled back from climate action but openly agitated for greater global fossil fuel use and for other countries to tear down their own climate policies.
“If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail,” the US president told leaders at a UN speech in September. “You need strong borders and traditional energy sources if you are going to be great again.”
There was an air of relief among some diplomats, then, when the White House said that no high-level representatives would attend the Cop30 summit in Belém, Brazil, this week. “President Trump will not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countries,” a White House spokesperson said.
