‘SHAMELESS HYPOCRISY’: What Newsom Leaves Out as He Lectures at UN Climate Conference

Traveling this week to Brazil, California Gov. Gavin Newsom cast himself as standing up for the climate–even as his state imports most of its oil from the area of the international conference where he spoke. 

About 45% of California’s oil imports come from the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, Brazil, Guyana, and Colombia. 

Newsom attended the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, called COP 30 for short, in Belém, Brazil, which runs from Nov. 10 to Nov. 21.

While there, he signed voluntary agreements with Brazil, Colombia, and Chile to lower carbon emissions. Governors cannot enter into binding treaties with foreign nations, which is the purview of the U.S. president and Senate, under the Constitution.

California gubernatorial candidates, focusing on climate and energy, have criticized Newsom for this.

“It’s just breathtaking and shameless hypocrisy and lying to run to the Amazon and preen with the global climate elite while half of the oil drilled in the Amazon rainforest is exported to California,” Steve Hilton, a 2026 Republican candidate for California governor, told The Daily Signal in an interview.

For his part, Newsom–expected to be a Democrat presidential candidate in 2028–has touted his trip to the conference as showing climate leadership where the Trump administration hasn’t.

“California remains a steadfast partner in confronting the climate crisis,” the governor said in a public statement. “These agreements strengthen our collaboration to advance healthy ecosystems and healthy communities—cutting methane emissions across waste, agriculture, and energy sectors to achieve shared climate goals. California is proud to unite shoulder-to-shoulder with Chile, Colombia and Brazil to deliver real results for people and the planet.”

On Tuesday, Hilton wrote a letter to the U.N. conference leaders. He raised concerns about allowing Newsom to speak to the conference in light of what he called “one of the most environmentally destructive hypocrisies in the world.”

“This oil comes from one of the most sensitive ecosystems on Earth, contributing to deforestation and the displacement of Indigenous communities,” Hilton, a conservative commentator and former Fox News host, said in the letter. 

“However, instead of addressing this exploitation, Governor Newsom continues to promote himself as a global climate leader—jetting to international conferences to pose for cameras while his policies bankroll rainforest destruction,” the letter adds.

The importation of oil hasn’t been a partisan concern in California, as the Democrat-controlled state Senate voted 37-0 to open an investigation of imported crude oil from the Amazon rainforest, and to eventually phase out the importation. The state buys most of the oil from Ecuador, according to the Associated Press. 

Hilton stressed that the policy not only damages the environment, but is bad for consumers. 

“Our gas prices are the highest in the country while Gov. Newsom wants to leave California oil in the ground,” Hilton told The Daily Signal. “He thinks this position will help him in the 2028 presidential campaign. It will not once the consequences are explained.” 

Environmental groups have raised alarm about the issue. 

“The Golden State, if it wants to be a climate leader, needs to take action,” Kevin Koenig, director for climate, energy, and extraction industry for the environmental group Amazon Watch, told the Associated Press in June. “California has an addiction to Amazon crude.”

Newsom’s office did not respond to inquiries for this story. 

Other California candidates have addressed the climate issue.

Former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, a Democrat candidate for governor, said she did not want drilling in California. 

“Donald Trump wants to allow new oil wells off California’s coast for the first time since 1984,” Porter said in an X post. “I have two words for him: Hell. No.”

She added, “California’s coastal waters been marred by oil spills, including one in 2021 off the coast of Orange County.”

Hilton wasn’t surprised the climate conference welcomed Newsom. He noted a study last year, led by University of Oxford researchers, that evaluated 1,500 climate policy measures from 41 countries between 1998 and 2022. The study found that 96% failed, while only 63 succeeded.

“The U.N. climate effort is all performative,” he said in the interview.

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