A bipartisan group of senators is planning to attend events tied to the COP30 global climate conference next month, even as the Trump administration’s presence remains doubtful.
Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) told POLITICO’s E&E News that he and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) will co-lead a delegation to Brazil. At least three other Republicans have expressed interest in joining the trip next month, he said.
Curtis attended the annual COP conference — a major site of global climate negotiations — when he was a member of the House.
But this year’s trip will come at a particularly fraught time for the United States’ climate standing on the global stage, with President Donald Trump this year rolling back renewable energy commitments and moving to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.
The U.S. is not expected to send a delegation to the climate negotiations, in part because the ongoing government shutdown has closed the State Department offices that would typically participate in climate negotiations.
Still, Curtis seemed unconcerned at the prospect of Republicans attending the conference without a Trump administration delegation.
“We have an agenda that is really coming together nicely. We’re super happy with it,” Curtis said in an interview. “Let’s put it this way, we’re not having a hard time finding things to do.”
Coons’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
In a Senate Foreign Relations hearing earlier this year, Curtis urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to send a delegation to the conference, saying that “a Republican voice is really important at that table.”
He specifically pointed to nuclear energy as a key topic for Republicans to amplify at the conference.
“The United States can carry a message that you don’t have to give up affordability, you don’t have to give up reliability and we can also be clean. I think that’s a really strong message of force,” he told Rubio.
Curtis’ delegation is the first confirmed group of lawmakers planning to visit Brazil during the talks. Other delegations of lawmakers, particularly from the House side, may attend.
Curtis declined to share the names of specific members joining him and Coons at the conference but said it is primarily composed of senators.
Reporter Sara Schonhardt contributed.
This story also appears in Climatewire.
