President Donald Trump has outright called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” which pretty much tells you why he’s going to snub the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-30) in Brazil. After taking the Oval Office again, Trump has made it clear he’s going in the opposite direction from the policies of previous Democratic administrations.
This includes executive orders like “Unleashing American Energy,” which puts the brakes on federal funding for climate-related initiatives that were part of the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. According to Fox, it’s not just the President who’s pushing this idea, though.
A whole crew of conservative energy and environmental groups is actively urging the Trump administration to completely skip the conference, which is set to run from November 10 through November 21. They’ve even sent a letter to a trio of administration leaders, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, telling them to stay home.
The US will not get greener
Their main argument is simple: these U.N. climate conferences, which the U.S. has participated in since 1995, are basically a waste of time and taxpayer money. According to the groups, the meetings “have accomplished nothing for the environment” and, on the other hand, have done a lot to hurt the U.S. economy and national security. They claim these international efforts are “designed to cripple the U.S. energy system and economy, compromise our national security, and steal from U.S. taxpayers under the guise of climate aid and/or reparations.”
The coalition, which includes organizations like the Heartland Institute and the American Energy Institute, argues that the anti-American nature of these global efforts should be avoided. Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, put it very clearly to Fox News Digital, saying, “It’s time America walked away from the U.N.’s endless climate conferences,” adding that refusing to send a delegation would send a “clear message: America will no longer be a victim of the global climate hoax.”
They’re convinced that these climate treaties, like Kyoto in 1997 and Paris in 2015, have been bad news, claiming they were what caused Europe to become dependent on Russia for energy, which, they say, even financed the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It’s an intense way of looking at it, but it shows how strongly these groups feel that climate policy is an economic and geopolitical disaster.
Heartland Institute President James Taylor was even a bit snarky about the upcoming meeting, suggesting the annual talks only exist to “saturate the atmosphere with CO2 from people congregating from all around the globe.” He basically says that by not sending a delegation, the Trump administration would be doing “more to reduce carbon dioxide emissions than all the participating nations combined.” To be fair, he’s pointing out the hypocrisy of the “self-appointed ruling class” who “saturate the atmosphere with CO2” with all their travel.
Published: Sep 27, 2025 12:12 pm