Fresh off redistricting win, Newsom to head to climate talks in Brazil

SACRAMENTO, California — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday confirmed he plans to attend the United Nations climate conference in Brazil next week, on the heels of a resounding political victory against President Donald Trump.

The Democrat and likely 2028 White House aspirant will be the highest-profile government representative there from the United States after the Trump administration decided not to send any high-ranking officials. Stepping into the vacuum plays to Newsom’s strengths, especially after his decisive win Tuesday on his congressional redistricting measure vaulted him to the position of the Democrats’ strongest retort to Trump.

Newsom put his trip squarely in that anti-Trump lineage in an interview Wednesday with POLITICO, saying he was making the trip “because of the complete abdication of the Trump administration that is joining the Saudis and Russia and the Gulf states.”

“It's doubled down on hydrocarbons as the rest of the world is sprinting ahead on low-carbon green growth,” Newsom said. “For me, it is about our economic competitiveness, period, full stop.”

Newsom’s attendance underscores his continued efforts to make California a leading stand-in for U.S. engagement on climate change in Trump’s second term. Govs. Tony Evers of Wisconsin and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, both Democrats, are currently in Brazil for part of the climate talks, as are dozens of mayors from across the country, but they don’t have the heft of the world’s fourth-largest economy behind them.

Newsom has spent all year positioning the state as a counterweight to federal rollbacks, including by brokering partnerships with other nations and subnational governments.

The trip to Brazil — Newsom’s first attendance at a COP — also gives him a platform to build his national and international profile ahead of a possible presidential run in 2028.

“I just want to make sure everyone understands we're maybe 2000 miles from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but we're a world away in terms of our mindset on these issues,” Newsom said.

The California Democrat will first lead a delegation of state officials to a global investment conference in São Paulo, where his agenda includes a fireside chat with Milken Institute CEO Richard Ditizio and meetings with Brazilian officials and business leaders.

Then he will travel to Belém, a city at the mouth of the Amazon River that will host tens of thousands of negotiators, scientists, and activists for two weeks of climate talks as part of COP 30. There, he is expecting to tout California’s commitments to renewable energy and meet with counterparts from around the world to formalize partnerships. He is also expected to travel deeper into the Amazon to meet with “community stewards,” according to his office.

Newsom will face the reality that California, despite its swagger, can’t play any formal role in nation-to-nation negotiations. But he’s trying to get around that: He’s co-chairing, remotely, a summit in Rio de Janeiro this week gathering mayors and governors highlighting their efforts to keep cutting emissions despite national backsliding.

Climate diplomats from Europe and elsewhere, who lost their bid to impose a global carbon tax on shipping last month amid opposition from the Trump administration, are already clamoring for an alternative from the United States at the Brazil talks, even as they water down their own goals.

“The U.S. will not play a major role,” said Jochen Flasbarth, the Undersecretary in the German Ministry of Environmental Affairs, in mid-October. “The world is collectively outraged, and so we will focus — as will everyone else — on engaging in talks with those who are driving the process forward.”

Josh Groeneveld contributed reporting.