The US Did Not Send An Official Delegation To COP For The First Time. Does It Matter?

The COP30 is set to conclude on November 21. About 56,000 people attended the climate summit in Brazil, making it the second-largest COP in history. However, the United States skipped the gathering.

Building on previous rounds of negotiation at Conference of the Parties (COP), the UN is expected to conclude agreements on climate finance for developing countries, carbon markets and forest protection.

This year, the COP returns to its origins in Brazil, convening for the first time in the Amazonian city of Belém. The hosts faced 145 items scheduled for negotiation. 

COP30 also falls at a pivotal moment in the cycle of the 2015 Paris agreement, which bound countries to limit temperatures to “well below” 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while “pursuing efforts” to stay within a 1.5 degree Celsius increase.

It also calls for practical framework breakdown and numerical targets filed in nationally determined contributions (NDCs), plans must be updated every five years.

As scientists consistently warn that emissions must fall sharply during the 2020s to keep the threshold within reach, two rounds of NDCs have already been completed: the first at Paris in 2015, and the second at COP26 in Glasgow, in 2021. 

As for the submission of NDCs this year, 95 per cent of governments missed it. Till September, a small number of additional governments had filed their plans, but the majority had still not done so — including major economies such as China and the EU.

Is the US taking against progressive climate policy?

This year’s COP, which started on November 10, hosted delegates from nearly 200 countries — but absent from the gathering is any official delegation from the United States, the country that has emitted more carbon dioxide than any other nation on Earth. 

This is the first time since the inaugural COP to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1995 that the United States did not have an official presence at the annual climate summit. 

The absence marks yet another step in the Trump administration’s pattern of dismissing efforts to combat climate change.

The White House in a November 1 statement said it will not send any senior officials to the COP30 climate talks in Brazil. "The president is directly engaging with leaders around the world on energy issues, which you can see from the historic trade deals and peace deals that all have a significant focus on energy partnerships."

However, while speaking at the United Nations in September, Trump lectured world leaders, telling them if they did not “get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”

On his first day in office in January 2025, President Donald Trump began the process of pulling the United States out of the Paris agreement, which he dismissed as a “rip-off” while vowing to “drill, baby, drill”. It was a measure implemented in 2020 and resumed in 2025 after another electoral victory. He immediately ceased/revoked any purported financial commitment made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Since then, the administration has taken a series of steps with major implications for climate policy. These have included stripping out key elements of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and rolling back other environmental regulations; withdrawing the US from climate-related bodies and initiatives; threatening countries with retaliatory measures if they backed a carbon pricing system proposed by the UN’s International Maritime Organization, propping up the coal industry; undermining and censoring climate science; and weakening USAID.

Washington is also using, or threatening to use, various forms of leverage to deter other countries from advancing climate action. Contrarily, the administration is pressuring trading partners to purchase more US-made LNG. The US has also withdrawn from the Just Energy Transition Partnership with South Africa, cutting off a major source of funding for developing countries’ climate efforts.

The exit of the world’s second-largest emitter, and its largest economy, from global climate efforts carries far-reaching consequences. US emissions are now expected to decline much more slowly than previously projected. Under the Trump administration, US emissions are projected to fall by 19 per cent–30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, excluding emissions from land use, land-use change and forestry. By contrast, the Biden administration had been on course to reduce emissions by 29 per cent- 39 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Trump has annulled the Biden administration’s emissions-reduction targets for 2030, 2035 and 2050. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) weakens the momentum in deploying renewable energy and clean technologies that had been accelerated by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Decarbonising the buildings sector depends heavily on electrification, yet the OBBB has removed key incentives needed to electrify homes and commercial buildings. It also distorts IRA tax credits to favour the production of coal for export to the steel industry.

The OBBB ends essential tax credits for electric vehicles, a move expected to sharply reduce EV sales and undermine the investments automakers have made in the domestic EV supply chain following the IRA’s passage.

It also eliminates federal tax incentives for wind and solar power. At the same time, the US plans to build more new fossil gas-fired power plants than any other country, locking in significant additional emissions from the power sector for decades to come.

The United States shapes markets, capital flows and technology pathways, so continued engagement by Americans signals to investors that the world’s largest economy recognises the competitiveness, innovation, security and supply-chain stakes of the energy transition.

America’s retreat could also reduce the pressure on other nations, particularly in the Global South, to put forward ambitious NDCs. As the US slashed its aid budget, several other wealthy nations — including the UK, France and Germany — also announced cuts.

Reduced levels of climate and development funding, combined with higher US tariffs, are constraining the capacity of developing countries to pursue climate action. They are also eroding trust between nations, making it harder to secure agreements at COP30.

However, no other country has yet followed the US in withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. Even so, for the United States, many state and local representatives — along with US-based environmental organisations — are attending.

A coalition of 100 local US leaders, including governors, mayors and other senior city and state officials, has travelled to Brazil, as part of the US Climate Alliance. “I’m here because I don’t want the United States of America to be a footnote at this conference, and I want you to know that we recognise our responsibility, and we recognise our opportunity,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said.