Later this week, world leaders will gather in Belem, Brazil for COP30. “COP” stands for “Conference of the Parties,” referring to the roughly 200 countries who originally signed on to the UN climate agreement in 1992.
This COP takes place ten years after the Paris Climate Agreement, when countries pledged to take steps to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius globally, and to aim for less than 1.5 degrees.
Researchers now say it’s inevitable that we will surpass the 1.5-degree goal. With aggressive action, it’s still possible to limit warming to 2 degrees, but right now, based on the “lackluster” commitments submitted by member nations ahead of the meeting, we’re looking at warming somewhere between 2.3 and 2.5 degrees.
Still, official U.N communications leading up to the event have maintained a hopeful tone.
“Scientists tell us that a temporary overshoot above 1.5 degrees is now inevitable – starting, at the latest, in the early 2030s. And the path to a livable future gets steeper by the day,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in an analysis of climate goals. "But this is no reason to surrender. It’s a reason to step up and speed up. 1.5 degrees by the end of the century remains our North Star. And the science is clear: this goal is still within reach. But only if we meaningfully increase our ambition."
As such, a major theme of this year’s meeting will be adaptation and working to limit harm done to the world’s most vulnerable countries and populations, like small island nations.
The COP will be facing an uphill battle, however: this year the Trump administration has declined to send any high-level officials to attend the conference.
President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement in his first term, and in January 2025 issued an executive order upon taking office to once again begin the process of withdrawing from the agreement. And last month, he gave a head-turning speech at the U.N General Assembly in New York, calling climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetuated on the world.” According to research published a few years ago at COP26, 99.9% of the world’s scientists agree that climate change is real and caused by humans burning fossil fuels. That’s the same broad consensus of scientists who agree on evolution and how tectonic plates work.
The U.S. is the second-largest emitter of carbon in the world, after China; a 2023 analysis from NOAA shows that the U.S. must cut emissions to curb global warming.
In an emailed statement, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine’s 1st District called the White House’s decision to skip COP30 a “stunning abdication of responsibility.”
“This decision makes clear that, for this White House, fossil fuel profits come before science, cooperation, and a livable future for our children and grandchildren,” she said in a statement. “As someone who has represented the United States at past U.N. climate summits, I know how essential American leadership is to global progress.”
But despite the Trump administration’s absence, a delegation of federal lawmakers will travel to Brazil. And they’ll be joined by more than a hundred American state and local leaders, including governors, state officials and mayors who are part of the U.S. Climate Alliance, C40 Cities, and other national climate organizations.
"We are showing up in force," Gina McCarthy, co-chair of America Is All In, a national climate coalition, told reporters on a call late last month.
The group represents about “two-thirds of the U.S. population and three quarters of the U.S. GDP, and more than 50% of US emissions," said McCarthy, who served as a climate advisor to former president Joe Biden.
As of the time of this newsletter’s publication, Gov. Janet Mills won’t be in attendance this year, nor will members of Maine’s congressional delegation, who are still dealing with the federal government shutdown. But the University of Maine and College of the Atlantic will be sending delegations, including students.
Anthony Moffa, a professor at the University of Maine Lew School who studies environmental and energy policy and legal tools for combatting climate change, will be taking a group of first-year law students to Brazil. UMaine has designated “observer status” at COP, meaning they can attend and share research insights and take meetings, but can’t advocate for specific outcomes.
Moffa acknowledged that, with the Trump administration declining to send a high-level delegation, this year will be a different experience. He usually sets up meetings for students with officials from NOAA and other departments, and that won’t be possible. Still, he says he and his students are still excited to attend.
“It's encouraging to be engaging with a global space where people actually are working on these issues and want to get to a solution,” he told planet maine. “It's such a different attitude towards the problem of climate change than we're seeing at the federal level in the United States right now. And so I think that's refreshing for students.”
Collin Reese will be attending the COP 30 with the College of the Atlantic Delegation. He agrees that the “vibe” of the forum will be substantially different without an official U.S. presence. A Maine resident, Reese works for Oil Change International, a global organization that advocates for the clean energy transition. But there’s also one aspect of this year’s COP he’s hopeful about: the return of organizing unofficial demonstrations and protests.
“The last few climate negotiations have been in pretty restrictive, authoritarian countries,” he said. “There hasn't been much ability for civil society to mobilize outside of the bounds of the Conference Center.”
But this year, the COP’s location in Brazil means there should be a robust showing of organizers outside the convention as well as in, he said.
“In many past COPs in different countries, there've been very large mobilizations on the outside [of the convention], which can be helpful both to shift the politics of what is happening inside the negotiations, also to just allow for many more people and many more diverse constituencies to come together, to meet each other, to connect, to build the climate movement more broadly,” he said.
Reese said he’ll be paying close attention to, and sharing information on, some Maine-specific topics, including offshore wind, solar policy and the transition to electric heat and heat pumps.
“In a moment of Trump shredding the U.S.’s nominal national contribution, what does that mean for sub-national governments that want to step up and do their part to commit? What could that look like here in Maine?” he said.
Both Reese and Moffa agree that COP30 lacking an official U.S. delegation this year won’t stop the international community moving forward on climate commitments and strategies.
Moffa said he understands why people can feel cynical about big, global meetings where it seems like progress is slow, after more than 30 years of COP meetings and ten years since the Paris Agreement.
“I've been doing work on climate change for 20 years at this point, and the opportunity to do ‘enough,’ we've blown past it.” Moffa said. “I get it… We fly around the world, we decide on something, that's never enough.”
But, he said that’s precisely why continuing to work toward a solution is so important. “We are now in the space where whatever we can do is going to save lives. And so what? What tools do we have to do something? This is one of them. It's maybe the most high profile of them, and for that reason, it's never the most ambitious. But it is a collective effort of the largest countries around the world, and so it cannot be ignored.”
And at the end of the day, he said, “this is the most important thing that anyone in the world is doing, collectively, to address what is probably the most important environmental challenge of our time.”
Maine hunters encouraged to ditch lead ammo
Decades after the U.S. got rid of toxic lead in gasoline, paint and water pipes, lead core bullets are still the most common form of ammunition on the market. But the debris a bullet leaves behind when it's shot can taint wild game meat and poison wildlife such as bald eagles.
State officials find PFAS in deer and wild turkey, issue hunting advisory
The department says it has detected high levels of PFAS in deer and turkey, which can show up in the meat and organs of the animals. A Do Not Eat Wildlife Consumption Advisory is already in place in several other towns.
Bold Coast Wilderness Preserve established in Downeast Maine
Downeast Maine will be home to a new 2,000-plus-acre nature preserve. The preserve’s location next to the Cutler Coast Public Reserved Land means that more than 14,000 contiguous acres of wildlife habitat have been safeguarded from development.
Popham Beach is eroding faster than any other stretch of sand in Maine
Maine's beach dunes are slowly recovering from devastation during back-to-back coastal storms almost two years ago. But according to the latest state beach mapping data, Popham Beach is eroding faster than any other stretch of sand in Maine.
Maine renews push for Aroostook County wind development
The state wants to develop 1,200 megawatts of renewable power and connect it to the New England electric grid with a power line that could stretch more than 100 miles.
Despite recent rain, drought continues to spread statewide
Senior service hydrologist Sarah Jamison with the National Weather Service in Gray said that Maine will need another 10-12 inches before winter to get fully out of the woods.
Juniper Ridge operator moves ahead with PFAS treatment plan
Operators of the Juniper Ridge Landfill said they are moving ahead with plans to treat landfill leachate for PFAS, but some advocates said that doesn't justify an expansion of the facility.
Between the end of Daylight Saving Time and the gloomy weather lately (let’s all keep hoping for rain!) it feels like fall is finally here to stay. So, in honor of the season, this issue we’re exploring two eco-friendly autumnal changes to make at home.
Trashing pumpkins
With Halloween in the rearview, people often fall into one of two groups — those who leave their porch pumpkins to rot, and those who immediately toss them in favor of Christmas decorations.
Either way, before you trash your Jack-o-lanterns or decorative pumpkins, pause! Gourds sent to landfill will sit there and decompose, emitting methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Maybe one of these options works for you instead?
🥧Eat them! Many don’t realize that what they assumed was a decorative gourd may in fact be edible. Some smaller pumpkins or squashes are quite good — but do conduct a reverse image search or quick Google of your variety before you decide to eat one. If they’re still in good condition (this will likely apply to whole pumpkins you didn’t carve), give them a wash, then roast them, whole or halved. There are plenty of great recipes out there for pumpkin or squash soup — I like mine blended with coconut milk and red curry paste. Or, you can freeze the cooked pumpkin and use it for pie filling in just a few weeks. Bon appetit!
🎃Compost them. Whether at home or your municipal compost dropoff, this is probably the easiest alternative to the trash. Just be sure to scrape off any candle wax first, which isn’t compostable.
🐖Feed the animals! Pigs love to eat pumpkins — as do goats, sheep and even chickens. Call a farm near you and ask if they’re accepting pumpkins for animal feed. Some farmers markets also organize pumpkin dropoffs the weekend after Halloween.
To leave the leaves, or not to leave the leaves? The recurring fall question
Every fall, my social media feeds are flooded with instructions to “leave the leaves.” This means, don’t rake them up — let them sit on the lawn over the winter and naturally decompose.
Social media influencers — while twirling in a circle in a yard full of leaves, throwing colorful handfuls of them into the air — make it sound so simple: if you leave the leaves, they’ll break down over the winter, providing your lawn with free compost, and serving as an overwintering haven for beneficial insects like lunar moths, fireflies, and more. Come spring, they say, your grass will be emerald green and your yard full of beautiful pollinators. Plus, raking leaves up and sending them to landfill, where they slowly break down and release methane is harmful.
And much of that is true — with a big caveat.
Fallen leaves “certainly provide this nice insulating layer for many of our beneficial insects, our pollinators and other arthropods that provide a great deal of ecological services to us,” Griffen Dill, Director of the University of Maine’s Tick Lab, told planet maine. Raking them up will disturb overwintering habitats for native insects.
“Of course, it also provides an insulating and protective layer for ticks,” Dill added.
And 2025 has been the worst season for ticks in the Northeast in years. For this reason, Dill said, the tick threat is just too high to risk letting them overwinter in your yard.
So what can you do if you want the benefits of leaving the leaves, also but want to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your pets from ticks?
🍂Rake them into the surrounding forest. Rather than bagging up leaves and sending them to landfill, Dill says you may be able to preserve the bug habitat – just not in your yard. But be careful to push leaf piles far past the edge of the forest. Ticks love to hang out on bushes and branches at the edge of a clearing. Or, you guessed it, compost them!
🌾Mow them. This will kill the native insect eggs, but it should kill the ticks, too, and it does put the leaves to good use as natural mulch for the yard.
🦋Leave them on designated parts of the lawn. If you’re already working on rewilding your yard by planting native plants instead of grass, try leaving the leaves in only those areas, and clearing the high-traffic areas.
Not all is lost for fans of ‘leave the leaves.’ If the tick population or Lyme disease rates go down, guidance from the Tick Lab could change in the future. Stay tuned!
Until next time,
Molly
planet maine: a climate newsletter is made possible by the generous support of:
