The U.S. didn’t send high-level delegates to COP30, but states like California are sending representatives and having an impact on the world climate stage.

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The U.S. did not send a delegation to the U.N.’s 30th climate summit in Brazil this year. The Trump administration has taken an anti-climate stance, calling efforts to limit global warming, quote, “a hoax.” But delegates from California and other states are at COP30, attempting to fill the void. Laura Klivans with KQED in San Francisco reports.

LAURA KLIVANS, BYLINE: California Governor Gavin Newsom says there’s a need for state leaders to be in Brazil.

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GAVIN NEWSOM: I’m here because I don’t want the United States of America to be a footnote at this conference.

KLIVANS: Newsom has been meeting with country leaders at COP30 on a range of issues, from biodiversity to clean energy.

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NEWSOM: California is a stable and reliable partner in low carbon, green growth.

KLIVANS: The state’s representation at COP comes as President Trump has rolled back national climate policies and, for the second time, moved to take the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming. In a White House statement to NPR, spokesperson Taylor Rogers wrote, the president won’t jeopardize economic and national security to, quote, “pursue vague climate goals.”

WADE CROWFOOT: It’s embarrassing that the federal government is missing in action on this global crisis.

KLIVANS: Wade Crowfoot leads California’s Natural Resources Agency. He’s in Brazil this week with Newsom.

CROWFOOT: The fact is that states and cities, you know, led by California are working to fill the void.

KLIVANS: California has a long history of taking environmental action that influences the country. In the late 1950s, for example, the state established clean air standards before the federal Clean Air Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1970. Over time, the state has partnered with countries like China and Australia to further clean air goals. Crowfoot says sometimes agreements are years in the making.

CROWFOOT: Really identifying capacities or technologies or expertise that one government has that the other government might be interested in.

KLIVANS: California partnered with Brazil in September to help it set up a carbon market. Another recent deal will bring Danish flood management expertise to California’s Delta region. Experts say agreements like these aren’t new. They’re just more visible now, given the vacuum of federal climate leadership. Casey Katims directs the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of American governors committed to keeping emissions low.

CASEY KATIMS: The impact of governors and mayors traveling to Brazil is to make sure that the rest of the global community recognizes how much progress the United States is still making in spite of the headwinds.

KLIVANS: Katims says the governors of New Mexico and Wisconsin are also at COP this year. Meanwhile, Governor Newsom has already signed even more agreements while in Brazil. One is with Colombia to address, among other things, the potent greenhouse gas methane. Another is with Nigeria to help increase adoption of electric vehicles.

For NPR News, I’m Laura Klivans in San Francisco.

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