Gov. Gavin Newsom of California on Tuesday cast himself as the “stable and reliable” American partner to the world, called a reported White House proposal to open offshore drilling in the waters off California “disgraceful” and urged his fellow Democrats to recast climate change as a “cost of living issue.”
Mr. Newsom, a Democrat who is widely considered to be weighing a 2028 presidential bid, used his appearance at the United Nations climate summit in Belém, Brazil, to paint President Trump as a threat to American competitiveness by letting China dominate electric vehicles, solar panels and other clean energy technologies of the future.
“The United States of America better wake up at that,” Mr. Newsom said at one of his many packed sessions at the climate conference, known as COP30. “It’s not about electric power. It’s about economic power. We, as the state of California, are not going to cede that race to China.”
While the Trump administration opted not to send any representatives to the summit, China is using its pavilion inside the event to promote its successes.
Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, criticized Mr. Newsom, saying he “flew all the way to Brazil to tout the Green New Scam, while Californians are paying some of the highest energy prices in the country.” In a statement, she said “these Green Dreams are killing other countries, but will not kill ours thanks to President Trump’s commonsense energy agenda.”
As the most prominent American official at the summit, Mr. Newsom was trailed by crowds at the conference. Going from one packed event to the next, the governor stopped to talk to admirers, waved to an applauding crowd at one point and entertained questions from the media, with the United Nations security detail having trouble getting him to events on time. It was his first appearance at an international climate conference and it was all the more notable because of the absence of an official United States delegation.
“Donald Trump didn’t show up at COP30 but California did,” Mr. Newsom said.
Mr. Trump has disavowed global climate cooperation by withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord, pressured other countries to buy more American oil and gas and blocked renewable energy projects at home.
Mr. Newsom called the administration’s pullout from the global pact “an abomination.” The United States is the only country to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, in which 194 other nations pledged to keep global warming to relatively safe levels.
The governor’s series of events ended shortly before a group of Indigenous protesters forced their way into the venue and clashed with security guards at the entrance, according to Reuters. They were protesting the incursion of mining, logging and agriculture in forested lands.
The governor said nothing about his national ambitions, even when asked directly, insisting that he was focused on ensuring that next year’s midterm elections were not undermined by the Trump administration. Mr. Newsom’s trip to Belém came on the heels of a successful ballot initiative that could help California Democrats flip up to five congressional seats.
“If there’s one message I want to deliver to all of you, it is that California distinguishes itself from the current occupant in the White House in Washington, D.C.,” Mr. Newsom said. “California is a stable and reliable partner.”
California produces more electricity from renewable energy, including solar and wind power, than any state except Texas. It established the country’s first statewide cap-and-trade program, a system that allows polluters to trade permits for emissions, which Mr. Newsom recently extended to 2045.
The governor waded into issues well beyond the confines of California and climate change. He said it was “chilling” to see images of U.S. bombardment of suspected drug ships off the coast of Venezuela without congressional approval. He called Mr. Trump a “bully.”
He urged climate advocates, including in his own party, to reframe the way they talk about climate change, less in abstract terms and more as a force that affects people’s pocketbooks.
“It’s about affordability. It’s about time we frame it accordingly,” Mr. Newsom said of his efforts to ramp up renewable energy in his state. “We’re here to frame it in economic terms, in cost-of-living terms.”
The Biden administration’s sweeping investment in electric vehicles and renewable energy did not resonate with voters in 2024. “We have some work to do as a party, as a nation,” Mr. Newsom said.
In fact, concerns about the cost of fuel in California forced Mr. Newsom to go easy on oil and gas lately. Just two years ago, Mr. Newsom was a combative critic of the fossil fuel industry. In 2023, the state sued ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips and others, alleging that they had misled the public about climate change.
But this year, Mr. Newsom enacted changes to make it easier to drill for oil. Asked about that contradiction on Tuesday, he said it was a “pragmatic” move endorsed by the State Legislature.
He said he would sue, if necessary, to block a reported White House proposal to issue oil drilling permits off the coast of California. “Dead on arrival,” Mr. Newsom said. He noted that Mr. Trump had not proposed offshore drilling off the coast near Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Florida.
“Disgraceful,” Mr. Newsom said.
Ivan Penn contributed reporting from São Paulo, Brazil.
Somini Sengupta is the international climate reporter on the Times climate team.
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