Senior US government officials are missing the annual United Nations climate summit for the first time in 30 years. And many American corporate executives appear to be following suit.
While few executives have joined President Donald Trump in calling climate change a hoax, some have recently suggested that the issue may not deserve as much attention as it has received.
Their attitude is not exactly climate denial, but rejection of the way the issue has been presented — a drastic change in relation to the defense and commitments made at summits held under different political conditions.
Take your business to the next level with the country’s top entrepreneurs!
Leaders of America’s biggest companies have already made pledges to reduce pollution, formed coalitions to finance the energy transition and called on governments to pass laws to reduce planet-warming emissions.
But at this year’s UN climate summit, no prominent American leaders traveled to Belém, Brazil — a city on the edge of the Amazon rainforest.
“Obviously, this has to do with the political climate in the United States,” said Sonia Dunlop, executive director of the Global Solar Council, an industry organization.
Continues after advertising
Previous versions of the summit have attracted influential CEOs such as Tim Cook (Apple), Darren Woods (Exxon) and Brian Moynihan (Bank of America). The absence of figures like these was interpreted by participants as further confirmation that the United States, under Trump, has turned its attention away from climate efforts.
Woods was at an event on Friday, 7, in São Paulo, sponsored in part by the US Chamber of Commerce, but missed the Belém summit — despite having participated in previous meetings in Baku (Azerbaijan) and Dubai (United Arab Emirates).
“Our company — and I think the industry in general — doesn’t disagree with the goal itself, in terms of what the world is trying to do with emissions,” Woods said at the event in São Paulo. “I think our challenge, and where there’s a lot more debate, is how we’re trying to achieve that.”
Humanity’s challenge should not be framed as “getting rid of oil and gas,” he said, but rather eliminating “emissions associated with burning oil and gas.”
This type of position has been noticeable during the Belém summit, as the US business sector tries to navigate what some describe as a minefield. A major concern is that executives who publicly commit to climate action could harm their companies by angering Trump and his advisers.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has aggressively dismantled federal climate-related efforts.
Continues after advertising
On his first day in office, he withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement and declared an energy emergency, used to justify new fossil fuel projects. Since then, his government has reduced environmental regulations, attacked the renewable energy sector and encouraged the production of coal, gas and oil.
This year, several major technology companies have acknowledged that they will not meet their climate goals due to investments in energy-intensive data centers needed for artificial intelligence.
Even before Trump’s second term began, many of the country’s largest financial institutions had already left their industry climate alliances.
Continues after advertising
And after criticizing Trump during his first term for rollbacks on climate policy, many CEOs are now silent.
“Maybe it’s not worth a CEO coming to the COP to talk about what they’re already doing,” said Dan Carol, senior director of climate finance at the Milken Institute, referring to the acronym for the UN summit, called the Conference of the Parties (COP).
Some large American companies sent other executives to Belém — the sustainability directors of Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Mastercard participated in the summit.
Continues after advertising
Carol’s group, a research organization created by Michael Milken, the bond financier who was pardoned by Trump, held a climate investor symposium on Sunday and Monday in São Paulo — more than 1,500 miles from Belém. It was one of several climate-related corporate events held in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the two cosmopolitan metropolises of southeastern Brazil.
Some U.S. energy executives, such as Exxon’s Woods, attended these events instead of the summit. In addition to the Trump factor, visitors this year were also hampered by a shortage of hotel rooms and other infrastructure limitations in Belém.
Carol said that investors are still interested in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the types of investment are changing — some clearly on pause — as the White House’s long-standing influence makes itself felt in conversations in Brazil.
Continues after advertising
An example of how corporate executives are changing their tune — at least in the view of some scientists — emerged last month in a memo from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
In it, Gates warned against “climate alarmism” and stated that it “will not lead to the extinction of humanity”. Many interpreted his comments as a reversal of his previous positions, and Trump and several Republicans celebrated it as a victory.
But just days before the Bethlehem summit, Gates said at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena that any suggestion that he had changed his position on the climate issue was “a massive misinterpretation of the memo.”
Gates said he intends to spend even more money on climate mitigation.
“I didn’t think the memo would convert nonbelievers into believers — and, in fact, it didn’t,” he said.
Gates’ attempt to clarify his position has only intensified concerns from world leaders, environmentalists and others that business leaders are backing down under pressure from the Trump administration.
The White House was dismissive of the Bethlehem meeting. “President Trump will not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other nations,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told The New York Times this month.
Sebastian Buckup, director general of the World Economic Forum’s Center for Nature and Climate, said he does not believe there is a “boycott motivated by political positions”. But he noted that as the climate debate has become more routine, “many of these issues have moved down the hierarchy of corporate priorities.”
Among the notable absentees from this year’s UN summit are some of the top executives in the US electricity sector.
Calvin Butler, president and CEO of Exelon and president of the Edison Electric Institute — the industry’s leading organization — did not attend the summit due to scheduling conflicts, according to a spokesperson. He recently told the Times that he remains committed to “steering what we do toward zero emissions.”
Several investment banks and major technology companies also sent executives to events in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro ahead of the meeting in Belém.
At Milken’s event in São Paulo, California Governor Gavin Newsom (Democrat) harshly criticized the Trump administration for refusing to send representatives to the summit.
He also said he was “surprised that not all the governors are here” and that corporate executives should not stay away from events like the climate summit, despite possible reprisals from Trump.
“We responded,” Newsom said before heading to Bethlehem.
At the opening of the leaders’ meeting ahead of the main UN climate summit, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg announced new investments to tackle climate problems.
Bloomberg promised to invest US$100 million, through his Bloomberg Philanthropies foundation, to accelerate efforts to reduce methane emissions — one of the gases that heats the planet the most.
Some executives from other countries also went to Belém. Among them was Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest, founder of the mining company Fortescue.
Between rain showers, Forrest received guests on his ammonia-powered boat, which emits fewer pollutants than traditional vessels. Former Vice President Al Gore was among them.
Forrest said he went to the UN meeting to show that there are still business leaders committed to tackling climate change.
He lamented that an international agreement to reduce emissions from the shipping sector was halted by “a certain president who doesn’t want to be contradicted by the rest of the world” — a reference to the Trump administration, which canceled the negotiations.
But Forrest added that the clean energy economy is moving in the right direction and said he is optimistic that the coming decades will see rapid reductions in planet-warming emissions.
“History always delivers results,” he said. “In the end, what is right will prevail.”
c.2025 The New York Times Company
