Governments and Billionaires Retreat Ahead of COP30 Climate Talks

"In the spring of 1992, President George H. W. Bush flew to Brazil to reassure the world. Delegates from more than a hundred and seventy countries had gathered in Rio de Janeiro to hammer out a global treaty on climate change. The United States was, at that point, far and away the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and, in negotiations leading up to the summit, it had widely been seen as dragging its feet."

"This week, representatives of just about every country in the world-there are now more than a hundred and ninety-are gathering for what amounts to a Brazilian homecoming. This year's climate-negotiating session, or COP (short for Conference of the Parties), is the thirtieth since the treaty negotiated in Rio went into effect, and it's taking place at the mouth of the Amazon River, in the city of Belém."

"He has cancelled dozens of clean-energy projects (including some that were mostly finished), forced coal-burning power plants due for retirement to remain open, and gutted the agencies that monitor changes to the oceans and atmosphere. And he's bullying other nations into following suit. Last month, at a meeting in London, Trump Administration officials went so far as to threaten international diplomats negotiating a pact to cut emissions from shipping."

In 1992, President George H. W. Bush traveled to Rio where more than 170 countries negotiated a global climate treaty while the United States was the largest greenhouse-gas emitter. Bush signed the treaty and warned that future judgment would rest on subsequent actions. Thirty years later, COP 30 convenes in Belém with representatives from over 190 countries, and the United States is not sending presidential or other high-ranking encouragement. The current U.S. administration rejects climate science, has canceled numerous clean-energy projects, kept coal plants operating, weakened monitoring agencies, and pressured other nations, including threatening diplomats over shipping-emissions negotiations.

Read at The New Yorker