Picking up the Trump Administration’s Slack at COP30.

Only four countries have not registered delegations at the COP30 climate talks in Belém, Brazil: Afghanistan, Myanmar, San Marino and for the first time, the United States. Others however are picking up the Trump administration’s slack to underscore the popular support that climate action and investment in renewables has in the US. DW reports:

But delegates from Washington state, along with governors, mayors and other representatives from states and cities across the US, are determined to pick up the slack. Together, they represent about two-thirds of the US population and produce nearly three-quarters of the country’s economic output.

And

“The United States have not pulled out of Paris. One part of the United States has, and that’s the federal government,” said Jay Inslee, the former Democratic governor of Washington and a founding member of the US Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of governors that includes 23 states and one territory. The group was spurred into action during the first Trump presidency in 2017.

“It’s very important that we not allow a misperception to exist that somehow progress has stopped because we have a bloviating, anti-wind turbine, climate-denying narcissist in the White House. That’s a very important message, I think, for the world to give them confidence to move forward.”

Speaking in Belem, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom told AFP any future Democratic president would rejoin the Paris Agreement “without hesitation,” adding that it’s both a “moral commitment” and an “economic imperative.”

“It’s an abomination that he has twice, not once, pulled away from the accords,” Newsom said. “Donald Trump is doubling down on stupid.”