Image by Sam Grozyan.

The United States of America was unofficially represented at COP30, the annual UN climate conference (November 10-21) in Belem, Brazil by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). He was not granted the privilege of officially representing the U.S. The State Department refused to facilitate his trip, refused to acknowledge the senator as a representative of a congressional delegation, refusing to acknowledge COP30, refusing to acknowledge global warming. This is the first time in Senator Whitehouse’s career that the executive branch of government has dictated a congressional member’s CODEL (Congressional Delegation paid trip for members).

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

In meetings with country representatives outside of COP30 official proceedings, Senator Whitehouse learned what’s happening to hopefully limit global warming, concluding that one way to climate safety is by imposing a fee on polluters. According to studies by Potsdam Institute, “a price on carbon” is one of the ways not yet implemented to tackle global warming.

The senator met with the Europeans, the Brits, and the Australians. The EU is instituting a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which is a global price on carbon that comes via tariffs. It is already law and set to go into effect in 2026. The conservative UK government is also in the process of figuring out how they’ll handle a carbon tariff. Australia is also looking into it.

Whitehouse: “This is sending a global price signal that if your goods are more carbon intensive than ours, we are going to charge you for that. You cannot pollute and export for free any longer.” However, a fee on carbon pollution is no guarantee of climate safety; on the other hand, not instituting a carbon fee is a pathway for climate failure, likely taking down civilization at some unexpected juncture. It’s gotten that serious.

In that regard, the value of oil and gas subsidies in the U.S. are $700 billion per year. That’s the value of polluting for free that the fossil fuel industry receives. It’s no surprise they were willing to “grease” the president with several hundred million dollars to do whatever they want to do.

American Opinion Polls on Carbon Pollution

According to the senator, Trump does not represent American interests. He only represents fossil fuel interests, not the American public. Proof is found in........

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