The governor’s office said Gov. met with Brazilian President at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, and finalized a memorandum of understanding with Portugal on clean energy and wildfire resilience; California Natural Resources Agency Secretary signed the MOU after Newsom met with Portugal’s Secretary of State for Environment, João Manuel Esteves.
The MOU with Portugal, the release said, deepens cooperation on offshore wind, battery storage and recycling, zero-emission transportation and port decarbonization; it builds on a 2022 wildfire partnership between CAL FIRE and Portugal’s Agency for Integrated Rural Fire Management and opens opportunities for joint training, satellite fire monitoring and emergency preparedness.
Newsom also joined Netherlands Climate Envoy Jan Versteeg for a fireside chat at the America Is All In pavilion and met with Ethiopia’s foreign minister and COP32 President-designate, Gedion Timothewos; the release noted Ethiopia will host COP32 in Addis Ababa and highlighted the country’s quick adoption of electric vehicles and its mostly renewable electricity.
The governor’s office framed the events as filling a gap left by the federal government; the release said the Trump administration did not send a U.S. delegation to COP31 for the second year running. “California is here at COP31, and we’re putting our partnerships to work, from fighting wildfires together to building a cleaner, safer energy future,” the governor said in the release.
The release said the Lula meeting builds on a climate partnership California and Brazil signed in September 2025 on carbon pricing, clean transportation and air quality. The governor’s office did not give a timetable or funding commitment for specific projects tied to the Portugal MOU.
The release summarized California’s recent domestic climate numbers to explain why state officials are pitching partnerships. It said the state has added more than 39,000 megawatts of utility-scale clean energy since 2019; that 67% of retail electricity sales were from clean sources at the end of 2024; and that battery resources serving the state grew from fewer than 700 megawatts to more than 23,000 megawatts.
COP31 runs Nov. 9–20, 2026, in Antalya. The governor’s office said California’s delegation includes the First Partner, Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, Food and Agriculture Secretary , Public Utilities Commission President , Air Resources Board Chair and Samuel Assefa, director of the Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation.
On Nov. 13, Anthony Martinez, a deputy communications director for the governor’s office, shared a copy of the signed memorandum with The Golden Coast Journal. The memorandum says it took effect on the date of its signature, Nov. 12, 2026, and runs for three years unless it is renewed or extended. It designates the Consulate General of Portugal in San Francisco and the California Environmental Protection Agency to establish an action plan, and says those organizations will endeavor to meet at least once a year. Martinez also pointed to Friday’s COP31 announcements, including $81 million for climate-smart agriculture projects to support California farmers in 55 counties. The office did not say what the memorandum commits California and Portugal to do first, or when.
State
Gavin Newsom
Governor · Democrat
Named 4 times in this story.
Portrait: Official portrait
World
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
President of Brazil
Named 3 times in this story.
Portrait: Ricardo Stuckert / PR (Palácio do Planalto, Flickr) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
State
Wade Crowfoot
Secretary for Natural Resources
Named 2 times in this story.
Portrait: Region 5 Photography, USDA Forest Service / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
State
Karen Ross
Secretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture
Named once in this story.
Portrait: California Department of Food and Agriculture / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
State
John Reynolds
President, California Public Utilities Commission
Named once in this story.
State
Lauren Sanchez
Chair, California Air Resources Board
Named once in this story.
Sources & methodology
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