During the meeting of heads of state preceding the formal opening of climate conference COP30 — to be held today and tomorrow in Brazil— Colombian President Gustavo Petro issued a strong rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump, calling him “disrespectful” for his absence from this key forum for the global climate agenda.
With this criticism, the Colombian president harshly denounces the indifference of the leader of a country that plays a central role in the international climate arena. By using the term “disrespectful,” Petro forcefully challenges the stance of the United States, the nation with the largest historical carbon footprint.
In addition, the Colombian president extended an invitation during his remarks to the upcoming CELAC-EU summit, which begins tomorrow, Friday, in Santa Marta, Colombia, and from which several major Latin American and European leaders have already withdrawn.
Colombia’s Petro calls Trump ‘disrespectful’ for not attending COP30 in Brazil
Although the COP30 climate summit does not officially begin until next Monday, Nov. 10, in the city of Belem, Brazil, a meeting of heads of state is taking place today and tomorrow within that international framework — one that the United States is not attending. It was in this context that Colombian President Gustavo Petro made his statement against his U.S. counterpart.
“The attitude of President Trump, who represents the country with the largest cumulative CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, is not only disrespectful but literally goes against the life of all humanity,” Petro wrote on his social media account X, adding that “in Belem, the world meets — without the U.S. — to prioritize the goal of life: stopping the climate collapse.”
In this context, the absence of the United States becomes evidence of a global role abandoned — or rejected — from the Colombian leader’s perspective. Such a statement underscores a broader tension: That of a global south increasingly critical of the inaction or retreat of traditional high-emitting powers.
In this regard, Colombia is not merely assuming a passive role; it seeks to exercise leadership in issues such as biodiversity, climate finance, and the transition to a fossil-free economy — areas that have been central to Petro’s government since 2022.
The presence of the United States at major climate summits has historically been synonymous with political and financial weight. Its absence, by contrast, conveys an image of disinterest in the shared agenda. The symbolic weight is even greater considering that the forum in Brazil brings together dozens of heads of state with the goal of outlining paths toward a “decarbonized economy” in a world where the climate clock no longer points to 2050 but to 2030.
En Belém do Para se reune el mundo, sin EEUU, buscando priorizar la meta de la vida: detener el colapso climático.
Mientras muchos de los países emisores de CO2, dedican su dinero a hacer más armas,devolver el.mundo a ensayos nucleares militares y aumentar el riesgo de guerra… https://t.co/FffQeikJpr
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) November 6, 2025
The Colombian proposals for Brazil’s COP30
Beyond the criticism of Trump’s absence from this summit, Gustavo Petro’s address at today’s meeting combined warning, proposal, and moral appeal. First, he warned about the risk of a “climate collapse,” noting that it is not only a matter of future emissions but of cumulative effects. “Mr. Trump is wrong; science sheds light on the collapse if the United States does not move toward decarbonizing its own economy,” said the Colombian president.
Colombia then made three proposals for COP30: Recognizing biodiversity as a climate solution; advancing the gradual elimination of fossil fuels; and promoting a reform of the international financial system that does not increase the debt of countries in the global south.
In that sense, Gustavo Petro stated today that “many of the CO2-emitting countries devote their money to making more weapons, returning the world to military nuclear tests and increasing the risk of nuclear war, invading countries, carrying out fascist policies against immigrants within their own nations, launching missiles with a total disproportion of force against poor workers of drug traffickers.”
“They set aside the fundamental purpose of humanity: To replace coal, oil, and gas — hydrocarbons — with a decarbonized economy suitable for life,” added the Colombian president.
It is worth recalling the tensions that, for months, have characterized relations between Colombia and the United States, with the South American country’s decertification in the anti-drug fight, the withdrawal of the U.S. visa from President Petro, and, more recently, his controversial inclusion on the so-called Clinton List under the U.S. accusation of maintaining ties with drug trafficking.
So far, U.S. sanctions have essentially affected the president, his wife and eldest son, and a prominent member of the government, Interior Minister Armando Benedetti. Nonetheless, the country was only punished with the withdrawal of U.S. financial aid — mainly intended for combating drug trafficking — but without an increase in tariffs, as had initially been announced.
Related: UN Denounces Failure to Limit Global Warming at COP30.
Petro’s invitation to the CELAC-EU Summit in Santa Marta
Finally, the president of Colombia took the opportunity to extend a broader invitation: At the very opening of the meeting, he called on his counterparts to participate in the upcoming EU-CELAC Summit, which will be held in Santa Marta, Colombia, and is intended to serve as a platform for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“I look forward to seeing you all in Santa Marta, the vital center and heart of the world … to join hands — a hand for life and for the humanity of planet Earth,” he said. Petro described the 2025 CELAC-EU Summit as “the meeting of civilizations” and “the democratic beacon to lead the world toward a decarbonized economy.”
In doing so, he referred to the key themes of the Santa Marta Summit, which focus on the triple transition (energy, digital, and environmental), health self-sufficiency and equitable access to medicines, sustainable agriculture and food security, gender equality, the expansion of biregional trade, and the fight against transnational organized crime.
Petro emphasized that the 2025 CELAC-EU Summit is a great opportunity to “build an economy of life.” “In Santa Marta we can bring together Latin America, the Caribbean — today mistreated and humiliated — and Western Europe to join hands around several issues,” he stressed in his speech at COP30, which brings together world leaders, scientists, non-governmental organizations, and civil society in Brazil to discuss priority measures to address climate change.
Related: ‘Trump’s Negative View of Colombia Predates Petro’, Says Former US Ambassador Whitaker.