BEIJING, Nov. 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — From November 10 to 21, the Brazilian city of Belém, deep in the Amazon rainforest, hosted COP30, the 30th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. To underscore its focus on global climate challenges, Brazil even shifted its seat of government to Belém for the duration of the summit. Yet the most striking development was the absence of a high-level U.S. representative, something not seen in the event’s 30-year history.
On his first day back in office earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement once again, a repeat of his first-term decision that the Joe Biden administration reversed in 2021. Branding global warming a green scam, the right-wing leader sent no official delegation to COP30. He has also pushed aggressively for fossil fuels to reclaim a dominant global role and has attacked any measure that could constrain U.S. coal, oil, or natural-gas interests. Over the past year, Washington has moved to block the Global Treaty on Plastic Pollution, pressured Europe into shelving key climate legislation, and thwarted efforts to establish a greenhouse-gas levy on the international shipping sector.
Some delegates were pleased to see the U.S. stay away. In interviews conducted before the summit by Reuters, The New York Times and other outlets, many representatives said that without Washington at the table, real multilateral dialogue might finally take place. They also noted that talks could move more smoothly this year, as every UN climate decision requires unanimous approval, giving any one country the power to halt a final agreement.
Still, the U.S. is the world’s largest economy and the second biggest source of carbon emissions, with per-capita emissions higher than any other major industrialized country. Its absence still inevitably weakens the global fight against climate change. California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, did show up with a delegation of state and local leaders, but such subnational efforts cannot replace the weight of federal authority. The U.S. could see its emissions decline slip into reverse, given the Trump administration’s moves to block new solar and wind projects, scrap electric vehicle tax credits and dismantle clean-energy subsidies.
The Trump administration has long cast doubt on global warming, but scientific facts do not vanish because a government refuses to acknowledge them.
Data from the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (C3S) show a widening hole over Antarctica. The world responded quickly to this scientific alarm. In 1985, countries adopted the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, and two years later, 26 nations and regions signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which placed global limits on the production, sale and use of eight major ozone-depleting substances, including chlorofluorocarbon, or CFCs. After four decades of collective action, particularly since the early 2000s, the Antarctic ozone hole has been gradually shrinking. Scientists expect it to return to its pre-1980 state sometime around 2060.
The slow healing of the ozone layer is a reminder that meaningful action is never too late. Today, developing countries such as China and Brazil are redefining their place in global climate governance, while developed nations, above all the U.S., carry an even heavier obligation to lead. On challenges of this scale, every missing voice makes the path forward harder. And ultimately, those who step back from the effort will find that they, too, cannot escape the consequences.
Comments to liangxiao@cicgamericas.com
