After taking office in January, Trump announced the USA’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement for the second time; this will take effect after one year. During his first term in office (2017 to 2021), the Republican canceled the 2015 agreement, which was intended to limit the global temperature increase to below two degrees.
Instead, more than a hundred representatives from US states and localities are now expected at COP30. The group represents about “two-thirds of the U.S. population and three-quarters of the gross domestic product,” McCarthy said. The now 71-year-old was national climate advisor under President Joe Biden and headed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Barack Obama.
“We will keep the promises we made to the American people and our international colleagues,” McCarthy said. She referred to the climate alliance of 24 US states, which have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by around a quarter compared to 2005.
Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse called it unlikely that the Trump administration would attend the conference in Brazil. “But who knows,” Whitehouse said. “They could decide at the last minute to send a plane full of climate change deniers and fossil fuel operators to Belem.” The UN conference will take place from November 10th to 21st.
