Wallets, not warming, make voters care about climate: California governor

By Issam AHMED
Belem, Brazil Nov 12, 2025

California Governor Gavin Newsom says his Democratic Party is "back on its feet" after a string of election wins -- and the way to make Americans care about global warming is to show how it affects their wallets. The 58-year-old leader of the Golden State spoke to AFP at the UN's annual climate summit, held this year in Belem, a northern Brazilian city on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. Newsom has emerged as one of President Donald Trump's fiercest foes during the Republican's second term, matching Trump's bombastic style on social media and raising his own national profile -- though some critics see such tactics as a race to the bottom. Democrats were wiped out in last year's national elections, which saw Trump return to power, but the party rallied in state and local contests earlier this month. Notably, charismatic progressive Zohran Mamdani won New York's mayoral race, while Democrats also captured two key governorships. Asked whether the party now had momentum, Newsom replied: "The answer is unequivocal, yes," citing state-level victories in the southern state of Georgia and the election of the first Democratic district attorney in a suburban Pennsylvania county as signs the shift runs deep. "This party's back on its feet. We're on our toes. We're not on our heels," he said in an interview with a small group of journalists. "It's a very encouraging moment," he added -- though he expressed frustration that some Senate Democrats had joined Republicans to end a federal budget impasse without securing the concessions on containing health care costs they had sought. - Kitchen table politics - The tall, impeccably coiffed governor of the world's fourth largest economy is widely seen as a likely 2028 presidential contender, though he has yet to make any announcement. He has been on a charm offensive at COP30, drawing a sharp contrast between the Trump administration's absence from the talks -- and its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement -- and California's own push to greenify its $4.1 trillion economy. Trump appears to have taken notice. In what was unlikely a coincidence, The New York Times reported Tuesday that the federal government plans to restart after roughly four decades offshore drilling along the California coast -- a move Newsom vowed would happen "over our dead body." Analysts have questioned whether energy companies would even be interested. Beyond pulling the US out of the landmark Paris deal to limit global warming, Trump's Republicans have launched an all-out war on solar and wind energy at home, undoing clean energy tax credits that were the signature climate achievement of former president Joe Biden. Asked whether President Biden's strategy of framing climate action as a job-creation issue was the best way to connect with voters, Newsom took a different tack. "Well, it's a cost-of-living issue, it's a kitchen-table issue," he said, citing the insurance risks now plaguing states from Florida to New Jersey, as well as his own California, which suffered one of the worst wildfires in its history earlier this year. - An American COP? - Such disasters have plunged the homeowners' insurance market into crisis, leaving residents facing steep rate hikes, canceled coverage, and long delays in receiving payments. Moreover, he added, "green energy is cheap energy" -- echoing a talking point borne out by global data, even if the picture in California, which has high energy rates, is more complex. "If we start talking in those terms, I think we'll be more effective," he said. Asked whether a future Democratic administration would seek to host a COP summit -- the earliest chance being 2031, when the Western bloc is in line -- Newsom chuckled and said: "The Trump administration has not done a damn thing to earn it." "I'd be very eager, as governor, to encourage that," he added, noting his own track record. As mayor of San Francisco, he hosted a UN environment day and the city now has a Climate Week. "But I'm not naive -- right now, our status would be maybe one-half of one percent in terms of support." Australia's opposition ditches commitment to net zero emissions
Sydney (AFP) Nov 13, 2025 - Australia's conservative opposition said on Thursday it will drop its commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 if it wins power and leads a country dependent on fossil fuels but highly vulnerable to climate change.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's centre-left government has poured billions into solar power, wind turbines and green manufacturing and pledged to make Australia a renewable energy superpower.

It has also pledged to slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70 percent from 2005 levels over the next decade and is campaigning to co-host next year's UN climate summit alongside Pacific Island neighbours -- some of the most climate-threatened nations in the world.

The opposition centre-right Liberal Party has agonised in recent weeks over whether to drop the net zero emissions pledge, introduced in 2021 by former leader Scott Morrison when he was prime minister.

Leader Sussan Ley said on Thursday that her party would drop the goal if it returned to office, capping weeks of internal debate.

She said it remained committed to "responding to climate change in a way that is affordable, responsible and achievable".

"Net zero would be welcome" but the target would have to be achieved without government intervention, Ley said.

"Energy affordability" would instead take precedence over government action to stop climate change, she said.

The Liberals were roundly defeated in this year's federal elections by Albanese's Labor, sparking soul searching on how best to claw back power.

Ley's announcement came just days after the party's conservative coalition partners, the Nationals, voted to ditch its own net zero by 2050 target.

The two parties will meet on Sunday to determine their coalition's formal stance.

- 'Climate wars' redux -

Australia's "climate wars" -- a years-long domestic fight over emissions policy -- stalled progress and the country remains dependent on its fossil fuel economy for growth.

Albanese slammed the opposition on Thursday for "walking away from climate action".

"They're also walking away from reliable and affordable energy," he told reporters in Canberra.

Albanese's green ambitions remain at odds with Australia's deep entanglement with lucrative fossil fuel industries.

It is the world's second-largest coal exporter, holds the third-largest coal reserves and continues to channel billions of dollars in public subsidies into fossil fuels.

Iron ore, extracted through emissions-intensive mining, also remains its most valuable export.

Australia, with its vast flora and fauna, is considered highly vulnerable to climate change.

A landmark climate impact report released by the government in September warned that rising oceans and flooding caused by climate change will threaten the homes and livelihoods of more than a million Australians by 2050, while deaths from heat-related illness will soar.

James Hopeward at the University of South Australia said the Liberals' reversal was "a catastrophic failure to acknowledge both climate science and energy system dynamics".

"Crucially, the Liberal Party's policy retreat ignores a fundamental truth: the transition to renewable energy is inevitable," he said.

Australia already has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world -- almost 19,000 Australians were estimated to be diagnosed with melanoma in 2024, official health data shows.

Environmentalists fear Thursday's move by the Liberals would see them walk back any meaningful progress made in recent years should they get back into office.

Amanda McKenzie, chief executive of the Climate Council NGO, said ditching net zero would allow "climate change to rip".

"It's deadly negligence that would leave Australians facing more fires, floods and heatwaves," she said.

"You can't win elections by ignoring voters who want meaningful climate action."