André Corrêa do Lago, the President of COP30, urged CEOs to ignore the Trump-led green backlash and come to the Amazonian city of Belem to step up the fight against global warming.
Corrêa do Lago, who will oversee the COP30 climate talks in November in Brazil, tried to calm increasing concerns that US President Donald Trump’s use of tariffs and hostility toward green energy sources could undermine the clean power transition. He said that recent attacks on clean energy sources like wind and solar show that the interests of fossil fuel producers are increasingly threatened by the transition to a greener economy.
“The success of this agenda is a challenge to some businesses and some interests,” Correa do Lago told Bloomberg, while calling on the private sector to attend the COP30 summit en masse in order to implement the commitments made by countries. “This is the utmost demonstration that these policies worked or these policies are working and that they are somehow threatening some significant interest,” he added.
Business Under Climate Pressure
Trump’s dismissal of climate policies has cast its shadow on the business community reports of halting initiatives have surfaced recently. In August 2025, the Trump administration ordered a halt to the nearly completed $1.3 billion Revolution Wind offshore project off Rhode Island citing national security concerns. The administration also imposed tariffs on imported wind turbine components to protect domestic manufacturing.
However, this move has raised concerns about potential delays in clean energy deployment and increased costs for renewable energy. In addition, major US banks, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup, have withdrawn from the Net Zero Banking Alliance, a UN-backed initiative aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050. Political pressure and worries about the financial effects of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) commitments are blamed for these withdrawals. As per Bloomberg report, considering such developments, it’s not clear how many executives will participate in the climate conference in Brazil.
In a letter published August 29, the COP30 President called on the private sector to take a “step forward, and not back” in order to make the transition an “exponential reality.” He also emphasised integrating economic strategies into climate action.
In May 2025, he had cautioned against the rise of "economic denial," in which special interests obstruct the shift to a low-carbon economy.
“It is not possible to have [scientific] denialism at this stage, after everything that has happened in recent years. So there is a migration from scientific denial to a denial that economic measures against climate change can be good for the economy and for people,” Corrêa do Lago told The Guardian in May.
Highlighting the irreversible nature of the ongoing climate transition, Corrêa do Lago urged businesses to view it as an opportunity for growth and innovation. This viewpoint aligns with Brazil's larger plan to host COP30 in Belém, showcasing the nation's commitment to sustainable development, forest preservation and addressing socioeconomic inequality.
