The Washington federal government will not send a top-level team to this year’s COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil. That absence was widely anticipated from a president who has twice withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement, cut funding for renewables, backed fossil-fuel projects and dismissed climate change as a hoax at the United Nations.
Still, state and local leaders, tribal nations, businesses, universities and other institutions from across the US are moving to fill the gap. Delegations from governors, mayors and subnational coalitions represent roughly two-thirds of Americans and nearly three-quarters of the country’s economic output, and many have traveled to Brazil to press on with climate action.
“It’s a long way to come from Seattle to Rio, but I made the trip, and others made the trip, because it’s important for the rest of the world not to give up on the United States,” said Jay Inslee, the former Democratic governor of Washington, speaking from Rio de Janeiro during pre-COP events. Inslee is a founding member of the US Climate Alliance, a bipartisan group of governors that now includes 23 states and one territory; it was formed in response to the first Trump administration in 2017.
Inslee emphasized that the entirety of the United States has not abandoned the Paris accords: “The United States have not pulled out of Paris. One part of the United States has, and that’s the federal government.” He added that leaders at state and city level will not let a climate-skeptical White House create the impression that progress has stopped.
Observers warn, however, that the president could still affect the negotiations from afar. Maha Rafi Atal, an associate professor in political economy at the University of Glasgow, said the administration’s tariff diplomacy risks influencing talks by pressuring partners on trade in exchange for carve-outs from measures such as the EU’s carbon border adjustment. “The signal sent to countries around the world is that the US may penalize in trade terms countries that take stronger climate action,” Atal said, and such dynamics might make some governments less willing to prioritize emissions reductions over short-term economic growth.
Gina McCarthy, co-chair of America Is All In (AIAI) — a coalition of local leaders and institutions — said the federal government could remain disruptive, but stressed that local actors are forging ahead: “Our delegation is focused on what we know for sure: local leaders and businesses across the United States are pressing forward on clean energy and are eager to collaborate with international partners to strengthen the Paris Agreement.”
More than 100 subnational representatives from groups including the US Climate Alliance, Climate Mayors and AIAI are participating in COP30, which runs from November 10 to 21. While many international decisions are taken at the national level, these local and state efforts are significant: the US remains the world’s second-largest emitter after China, but states and cities argue they can still keep the country on a path to meet the 2015 Paris goals and reach net-zero emissions by mid-century.
An analysis released by AIAI and led by the University of Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability finds that expanded state and local action, combined with a restoration of federal support after 2028, could reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by 56% below 2005 levels by 2035. Under the Biden administration, the US had pledged reductions of up to 66% by 2035. The analysis highlights three priority areas for local policy: electricity, transportation and cutting methane from leaky gas infrastructure and organic waste.
“Our findings show that innovative local policies and market-driven clean technology investments can keep the US on a path toward significant emissions reductions, even in challenging times,” said Nate Hultman, director at the Center for Global Sustainability.
At the COP30 Local Leaders Forum, McCarthy — who served as an EPA administrator and as a climate adviser in the Biden administration — reiterated the belief that “change happens from the bottom up.” She pointed out that the 24 states in the US Climate Alliance have collectively cut emissions 24% below 2005 levels while growing their combined GDP by 34%, a statistic she used to argue that cutting emissions can go hand-in-hand with economic growth and job creation.
Inslee, whose state-level policies on clean energy, efficiency and low-emission transport influenced national approaches, said those economic and job benefits are central to the local push. Even in traditionally oil-heavy states, renewables are expanding: Texas, which is not part of the Climate Alliance and where voters have repeatedly backed Trump, leads the nation in renewable generation and battery capacity, driven in part by the demand for cheaper electricity. Recent data show average power prices in Texas among the lowest in the country.
Through their presence in Brazil, US local leaders aim to build international partnerships and make sure subnational action informs formal negotiations in Belém. “We have power, we have agency, we have authority, and damn it, we are going to use it!” McCarthy told supporters in Rio.
Edited by: Tamsin Walker
