At UN Climate Summit, Newsom Declares America's Climate Fight Far From Over
California Governor Gavin Newsom took the stage at a United Nations press conference at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, on November 13, alongside state and regional leaders, declaring that America's climate fight is far from over and that states and regions are not waiting for Washington.
Newsom said American climate leadership is bigger than any one president, and that California, the world's fourth-largest economy, keeps delivering results. He said California is no longer in the goal-setting business, that the question is how to act and at scale, and that so far this year the state has run on 100% clean energy for part of the day on nine out of 10 days.
In his remarks, Newsom called out the fossil fuel industry, saying the climate crisis is at its heart a fossil fuel crisis and that the companies responsible need to be called out and held accountable. He also traced California's climate leadership across party lines, noting that Republican Governor Ronald Reagan created the California Air Resources Board in 1967 and that a Republican governor was in office in 2006 when California established its cap-and-trade program, saying the commitment is built into the state's DNA.
Earlier in the day, Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom met with Australia's Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, who is leading this year's COP31 negotiations, joined by California Air Resources Board Chair Lauren Sanchez. They discussed sea-level rise, global financing for climate resilience, ocean health, sustainable and regenerative farming, and growing the share of electricity that comes from clean energy. The Governor's office said the meeting builds on the California-Australia climate partnership signed in 2023, and that in September California and the Australian state of Queensland signed a new partnership on agricultural innovation and climate resilience.
The two also visited the Ocean Pavilion, co-led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which hosts seminars on climate and ocean health and is now in its fifth year at the UN climate conference. Siebel Newsom also joined a U.S. Climate Alliance panel on women climate leaders alongside New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and others.
COP31, the 31st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, is being held in Antalya from November 9 to 20, hosted by Türkiye with Australia leading the negotiations, and this year's focus is implementation: turning climate commitments into concrete, measurable results. California is a founding member of the Under2 Coalition and the U.S. Climate Alliance and a co-chair of America Is All In.
(Source: California Governor's Office)
Source: California Governor's Office
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加州州长 Gavin Newsom 在记者会上发言（资料图），加州州长办公室，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: California Governor Gavin Newsom speaking at a press conference (file photo), Office of the Governor of California, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
