Shumita Basu

Some 33 years ago, President George H.W.

Bush was in the same country celebrating a treaty that would make these COP gatherings, short for Conference of the Parties, a yearly tradition.

Today's Republican president has positioned the party in a very different place.

And this year, for the first time, there will be no official U.S.

presence.

President Trump has been openly dismissive of the very science behind climate change.

He said as much during a speech at the U.N.

General Assembly earlier this year.

Back in 2017, he withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, and this term he has been more aggressive in lobbying other countries to abandon environmental initiatives that the White House says risk limiting the American economy.

Elizabeth Colbert, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Life on a Little-Known Planet, spoke to us about the consequences of the U.S.

's retreat from its role here.

While there's been no U.S.

federal representation at the conference this week, Democratic governors from New Mexico and California have been in attendance to talk about limiting emissions in their states.

In the 10 years since the Paris Agreement was signed, which sought to keep global temperature increase at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the planet has warmed so much that the goal appears out of reach.

Still, a new UN analysis this week found that global emissions should fall by about 12% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels.

That's an improvement on previous projections, but short of the Paris goal.

Countries at this year's conference will also likely be looking for financial support to help reach climate adaptation and mitigation goals.

Let's turn now to a disease that made a big comeback in 2025, measles.

The WHO's Pan American Health Organization this week stripped Canada of its measles elimination status.

The group determined a large outbreak that began there in October of 2024 is still ongoing more than a year later, meaning it meets the threshold for losing the elimination designation.