Newsom travels to Turkey for climate conference, blasts Trump as a ‘no-show’

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom left California on Tuesday to join international leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Antalya, Turkey.

Newsom framed his attendance as an opportunity to tell the world that California’s climate leadership is delivering results as he criticized President Trump as a “no-show” for declining to send a delegation on behalf of the United States.

“While Donald Trump sells out America’s economic security to his fossil fuel donors, California isn’t backing down from the climate fight,” Newsom said in a statement. “Trump is temporary. California’s partnerships around the world are not.”

Trump’s absence on the international stage has created an opening for California governors to contrast their climate policies with the federal government’s attempts to reverse the nation’s progress.

Then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2017 sharply condemned the president’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. On a 10-day trip to the Vatican, Brussels, Oslo and a U.N. Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany, later that year, Brown was labeled America’s “anti-Trump” as he warned that humanity was on the chopping block unless world leaders took action to reduce global emissions. Brown also hosted his own international climate summit in San Francisco in 2018 to recommit countries to the ideals of the accord that Trump disavowed.

Since taking office, Newsom has appeared at several annual Climate Week events in New York and used his speaking opportunities to blast Trump in traditionally apolitical forums, often garnering international applause.

In 2019, he burst onto the climate scene when he told foreign leaders he was “absolutely humiliated” by Trump’s efforts to walk back the nation’s climate policies as the state and the federal government were locked in a battle over vehicle emission standards.

Newsom’s visit to Turkey follows a trip to Brazil last year to attend the U.N. conference, where he similarly cast California as a proxy for the Trump administration.

As he considers a run for president in 2028, Newsom is framing his remarks in Antalya, a tourist city on the Mediterranean coast, around his work to reduce greenhouse gases, encourage the use of zero-emission and electric vehicles and increase his state’s reliance on clean energy.

Newsom is expected to meet with other world leaders and sign pacts to address climate change together.

The governor’s envoys in Turkey include First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and his top climate confidants: Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, and Lauren Sanchez, chair of the California Air Resources Board, among others.