“The COP Cop-out:” The U.S. and The COP30 Convention

The United Nations’ annual climate change conference, “COP30,” opened on November 10th, and is set to finish two weeks later on November 21st. This year, the conference is in the Brazilian Amazon city of Belém and marks the 30th meeting of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

Things feel a little different this year. Maybe it’s the absence of some of the most prominent senior-level global leaders, who serve as representatives of some of the world’s biggest polluters, namely those of the United States, China and India.  

This year is less about climate ideas and more about climate action. COP30 leaders want this summit to be one of “implementation and adaptation,” with a focus on agreeing upon climate-finance goals. At the same time, 2025 is on track to be one of the hottest years on record, and the planet is increasingly approaching the Paris Agreement’s warming threshold. 

Since Trump’s first term in office, the United States has been increasingly uninvolved in climate-centered discussion unless the topic involves halting plans for climate action. Beyond pulling out of the Paris Agreement (twice), the United States has stalled talks on a plastics treaty, pressured Europe to abandon green policies, and derailed a landmark deal on international shipping. 

Back in October, Trump threatened countries supporting a largely uncontroversial International Maritime Organization (IMO) measure to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from shipping. The Trump administration framed the pursuit as “misguided” and driven by “climate alarmism.” These threats, including potential visa cuts and sanctions on supporters, worked. The IMO, concerned with protecting its relationship with the United States, failed to adopt this agreement.

It wasn’t always this way.

A well-known photo of a large group of world leaders—too many to fit in one frame—shows the once-united stance of those in positions of power on combatting global warming. In the photo, Presidents Obama, Modi, Putin, and Xi stand in front of the large sign at the 2015 COP summit in Paris. That photo now feels like a relic. The new White House position is that the U.S. can leave any agreement that does not “reflect our country’s values or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives.” 

Trump’s decision to skip COP30, along with the absence of any high-level White House figure, illustrates an utter disregard for climate change and reaffirms the administration’s negative stance on climate politics. To the Trump administration, it is all about who captures and controls the economic benefits of a green transition. China is currently the clear driver of this renewable-energy boom. Trump has attempted to get his foot in the door with fossil-fuel interests through bilateral talks with India. 

The absence of any high-level official from Washington at the COP demonstrates Trump’s preference for bilateral deals and his disregard for multilateralism, including that required by the UNFCCC. It also raises questions about the effectiveness of COP. Without some of the world’s greatest financiers and emitters of fossil fuel, what exactly can COP achieve? Few countries want to risk getting on the wrong side of the United States, given the history of Trump’s tariff policies. To cut global emissions, the U.S. will need to eventually step up, as will the other G20 countries that produce 80 percent of emissions. 
Out of the large shadow of the United States comes the smaller nations, particularly voices from key stakeholders and countries most impacted by climate change, such as the Alliance of Small Island States and the G77+China bloc. Still, some Americans, including about 100 state and local leaders, are in attendance, breaking with President Trump’s insistence that climate change is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”