As UN Climate Summit (COP30) Launches in Brazil Over Trump Threats, Senator Stern Joins California Delegation in the “Lungs of the Earth”

SACRAMENTO – State Senator Henry Stern (D–Los Angeles) will join Governor Gavin Newsom, Senator Josh Becker (D-Palo Alto), and California’s senior climate leaders, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 30) in Brazil next week.  The Trump Administration is absent from COP 30, and Secretary Rubio has personally been calling other nations' ambassadors to threaten them with financial or revoking their ability to disembark at American ports for attempting to advance key agreements in sectors like shipping and methane.   “We cannot let Trump bully the world into climate denial,” Stern said.   

Among other topics, Stern is slated to speak on Gov. Newsom’s rollout of the corporate climate disclosure legislation he wrote in 2024, despite numerous legal challenges, most recently from Exxon Mobil. 

Stern is also going to be closely monitoring how negotiations progress in strengthening Article 6 of the UNFCCC charter, where Brazil is looking to rollout the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, an alternative to traditional carbon offsets, which have proven unreliable in providing the funding or the environmental integrity to keep the largest rainforests in the world standing.  

“These are the lungs of the Earth,” Stern said.  “The Global South is subsidizing us in the north with the air we breathe, and we must find a way to sustain these forests if we don’t want a future where the Palisades’ fire looks like a minor conflagration.” 

In the California legislature’s reauthorization of a $60 billion cap-and-invest program last year, Article 6 was explicitly mentioned as a benchmark for validating greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects abroad.  Thus far, California has only played an indirect role in advancing international climate progress, but COP30 may open the window, especially in light of active hostility from the Trump administration, to more direct and substantial international collaboration.  

“California isn’t just the world’s fourth largest economy or the epicenter of climate progress—we’re also the third largest petroleum consumer in the world behind the US and China.  So if we can show a steady transition away from fossil fuels will actually make life more affordable, we can break this vicious cycle of politics trumping prosperity and safety.”