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Newsom cited California’s long-standing commitments to clean energy deployment, zero-emission vehicle mandates, methane reduction, and climate finance partnerships as evidence of progress. “I’m here in the absence of leadership from Donald Trump, who’s abdicated responsibility on a critical issue,” he said, according to Sky News.

“I’m here to show up on behalf of my country. I’m here to showcase California’s leadership, dominance in the low-carbon greenco space,” he said. “I’m here because it’s about more than electric power, it’s about economic power, and I’m not going to cede America’s economic leadership to China.”

Newsom said Republicans were ceding the market to China. “China is flooding the zone and will dominate in the next great global industry,” he said.

“The United States of America is as dumb as we want to be on this topic, but the state of California is not,” he said, according to Reuters. “[W]e are going to assert ourselves, we’re going to lean in, and we are going to compete in this space.”

Newsom’s role at the conference emphasized that, with the Trump administration’s retrenchment on climate policy, states will be the leaders on climate policy. Newsom is a likely candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.

At the conference, California signed a California–Chile MOU on methane, a California–Colombia MOU on sustainable development. Newsom has pursued a number of international MOUs and partnerships in 2025. Most recently, this includes an MOU with Kenya and an MOU with Brazil, both signed at the United Nations “Climate Week” in September.

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The MOU is intended to:

• Promote the protection of the natural and built environment and reduce air pollution and carbon emissions;

• Advance medium- and long-term low-carbon development and national climate plans;

• Promote policy research, development and innovation for sustainable transportation and clean energy goals;

• Promote “mutually beneficial trade relations”;

• Advance policy research, development, and innovation in sustainable land use and urban planning that reduces long commutes and urban sprawl, while promoting integrated land use and transportation systems

• Promote opportunities for private collaborations, as well as public-private partnerships.

A California climate and economic trade delegation traveled to Kenya and Nigeria in August and met with officials to discuss clean energy and climate issues.

Officials from California and Brazil signed an MOU earlier in the week, establishing a framework for information sharing and collaboration on climate policy.

Denmark is committed to expanding our partnerships around the world – also with federal states like California,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said. “We are both frontrunners within green energy, innovation, and sustainability. If we combine our efforts, we can really push forward – not only for our own economies and societies, but also by inspiring others to pursue a green transition that creates jobs and growth at the same time.”

The MOU stated the following objectives:

• Boost the green economy and accelerate climate resilience by achieving carbon neutrality by 2045 through shared leadership;

• Enhances digital and cyber resilience through technology and policy collaboration;

• Strengthens innovation ecosystems by supporting public-private collaboration, research exchange, development projects, and aligning investment in future-oriented sectors, including emerging technologies and sustainability;

• Facilitates the exchange of knowledge, best practices, and policy insights through dialogues, delegations, trade promotions, projects, and partnerships

In outlining cooperation on the “Green Economy and Resilience,” the countries note the areas of the clean energy transition, decarbonization and energy efficiency, sustainable water and wastewater management, and “climate smart agriculture.”

California Climate Diplomacy

California continues to pursue subnational agreements as part of its climate strategy. In 2022, California signed climate memorandums of cooperation with Canada, New Zealand and Japan, as well as MOUs with China and the Netherlands.

In 2023, California signed MOUs with the Chinese province of Hainan and with Australia. He also signed five MOUs with Chinese officials and pledged California’s cooperation with China on climate issues. California also signed onto the Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28).

In 2024, Newsom signed a renewed climate partnership with Sweden and Norway. Newsom also declared California a “trusted and stable partner” in global climate change policy during a conference at the Vatican. In 2025, Newsom signed an MOU on environmental protections with a Brazilian consortium of 21 states. California and the Mexican state of Sonora also signed an MOU on collaboration on clean energy development.