COP30: A look into the absence of US officials

The United States has announced it will not send high-level officials to COP30 in Belém, Brazil.

According to Reuters, some foreign officials welcomed the move, believing US involvement might have hindered negotiations. The decision, however, extends beyond climate diplomacy, as it is grounded in Washington’s economic and foreign-policy frameworks.

Back in July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that states are legally bound to protect the climate and prevent environmental harm. However, this is only an advisory opinion and does not have the power to cause direct implementation. 

The World Meteorological Organization confirmed that 2024 witnessed the highest annual average temperature recorded, exceeding the 1.5°C mark, a threshold seen as a warning under the Paris Agreement and El Niño. This milestone marks a call for renewed commitment with the upcoming COP30. While the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) frames COP30 within this new legal and moral setting of the ICJ’s ruling.

The US has increasingly leveraged its economic power to shape, delay, or redirect global climate initiatives. The US administration’s stance has been explicit. In an October 10 statement, the Department of State condemned the IMO’s Net-Zero Framework as a “global carbon tax” and a European-led “neocolonial export of climate regulations.” It also listed punitive measures like visa restrictions and commercial penalties against nations supporting the framework. Chatham House reported that members of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) postponed their ‘Net-Zero Framework’ by one year after high pushback from the US.

Despite the geopolitical turmoil, the IEA’s World Energy Investment 2025 report forecasts that global energy spending will reach a record $3.3 trillion this year despite economic and political challenges. Around $2.2 trillion of that will go to clean-energy technologies, which is almost double the investment in fossil fuels. China remains the main driver of this shift, and several emerging economies are expanding renewables faster than advanced nations.

These developments urge us to question and examine what COP30 will produce. According to the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), the expectations like the need for countries to raise the ambition of their climate plans, for adaptation efforts to move decisively from planning to implementation, and that, ten years after the Paris Agreement, the focus shift from pledges to tangible progress through local action.

Amid economic and political fractures, COP30 stands as a test of whether governments, corporations, and institutions can sustain momentum, despite limited US involvement, especially when climate action is seen through the lenses of law, finance, foreign policy, and human rights.

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Feature images by Rafael Medelima/COP30 Brasil Amazônia/PR.