Democrats promise US return to climate summits after 2028

Rpresenters of the United States Democratic Party today promised that the country will return to the UN climate summits after the 2028 presidential elections, warning that the absence of Washington benefits China.

“ We will be back, without a doubt, within two years,” California governor Gavin Newsom said during the COP31 climate summit in Antalia, Turkey, without the participation of the US President Donald Trump’s administration.

Newsom, pointed out as a possible Democratic candidate for President of 2028, said that the withdrawal of the United States did not stop global climate action, recalling that the other countries continue to participate in the negotiations, “196 countries minus one is not zero” added.

“ We are the only country in the world that has turned its back on COP,” he lamented, stressing that US states and cities continue to work to reduce emissions, despite the position of the federal government.

The Democratic delegation includes the governors of Minnesota, Tim Walz, and New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, as well as several mayors and about 20 members of the House of Representatives.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and former Secretary of State John Kerry also participate, two figures linked to the American commitment to climate change.

The Democrats consider that the results of the mid-term elections in November, in which the party gained control of the House of Representatives and Senate (the two chambers of Congress) and obtained the majority of state governments, represent support for climate action.

The presence at the summit seeks to maintain international contacts after Washington abandoned the 2015 Paris Agreement and reversed federal measures aimed at limiting emissions.

Newsom stated that the absence of the United States is a strategic error that favors China, Washington's leading economic and geopolitical rival.

“China is leaving us behind in green and low carbon growth,” he said, highlighting the Chinese domination of supply chains and stating that the country represents 70% of the world market for electric vehicles.

The governor warned that the United States could lose capacity to maintain a competitive car industry if it did not respond to Chinese competition.

Newsom, who ends his term in January, after two four-year terms as governor of California, argued that the next US president should reduce emissions, electrify the economy and accelerate the transition to clean energy.

The governor also criticized the Trump administration, which accused it of being one of the most corrupt administrations in history as well as abandoning the international role of the United States in the fight against climate change.

As an example of the climate policy he advocates, Newsom stated that California has seven times more jobs linked to clean energy than fossil fuels.

He added that in nine out of ten days of this year, the state managed to operate during part of the day only with clean energy, being the state “the fourth largest economy in the world”.

The governor also held large oil companies responsible for the delay in implementing solutions to the climate crisis, accusing them of spreading false information and stopping alternatives to fossil fuels.

“ The climate crisis is not complicated, it is a crisis of fossil fuels” he completed.

Newsom said that these companies have earned about 100 billion dollars in profits in the last quarter and argued that they should be held accountable.