© 2026 ABC News

Banks laughed during the protest and joked that the \"singing is pretty good.\"

The U.S. registered 49 people to attend the convention. That includes people from the State Dept., agencies like the Dept. of Energy, Treasury, USDA, and EPA, as well as a five senators and some congressional staff. In comparison the United Kingdom registered 45 people, China registered 83 people, and Canada registered 161.

While the U.S. delegation is present and meeting with other delegations there is reportedly no booth for the official delegation in the main pavilion. The unofficial delegation does have one it calls the U.S. Climate Action Center and has been hosting events there throughout the conference.

There's also a notable absence of representation from America's main environmental agency. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt will not attend the summit and only three people are registered from the EPA.

The alternative delegation has adopted the tagline \"We Are Still In\" and represents more than 2,500 leaders from state and local governments, private companies, and universities, according to its website. Democratic members of Congress also attended and participated in events about how the U.S. is working to meet the goals of the Paris agreement but they are also listed as part of the official delegation.

The \"We Are Still In\" coalition is working to show the international community that America as a whole is still committed to mitigating global warming, even if the federal government isn't. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and California Governor Jerry Brown announced a report showing the impact of climate action by state and local governments and they plan to present a citizen petition of support for the Paris Agreement this week.

In total 20 states, 110 cities, and over 1,400 business from the U.S. have adopted targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to their report.

America's climate leaders, representing 130 million people and $6.2 trillion in US GDP, are at #COP23 to show the world that #WeAreStillin pic.twitter.com/TCC77sb08C

— We Are Still In (@wearestillin) November 6, 2017

Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat, said no Republicans joined them, even though they had plenty of notice about the trip.

\"The death grip of the fossil fuel industry on the Republican party precludes their participation in events like this without dire consequences to them and so therefore regrettably we are not a bipartisan delegation,\" Whitehouse said on a call with reporters.

Sen. Ben Cardin said Republicans are interested in their conversations at the summit and he will be reporting back to his colleagues on the foreign relations committee.

Most of the elected officials in the unofficial delegation are Democrats but there is at least one Republican, Mayor Jim Brainard of Carmel, Indiana.

One concern: Will the U.S. be left behind?

One reason members of the alternative American delegation said they felt it was important to attend was so the U.S. wouldn't be left behind as other countries continue to work together on climate issues. Chinese President Xi Jinping recently got a standing ovation for saying the world must act on climate change in his speech at an economic conference for Asian countries. Trump did not mention the issue of climate change in his speech at the same event.

One of the questions being discussed at COP23 is whether developing countries have to follow the same timelines as the rest of the world — an issue particularly important for the U.S. as it seeks to hold countries like China and India accountable for their share of greenhouse gas emissions.

\"One of our concerns is that China may very well have a bigger role to play here at COP23 as a result of the United States not being as focused on this conference as we should be because of President Trump's comments,\" Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said on a call with reporters last week.

There have also been questions about whether the U.S. is becoming more isolated after the delegation from Syria announced at the summit last week that they would sign on to the agreement, leaving the U.S. the only country opposed to the deal.

Nauert denied that this left the U.S. isolated, calling it \"ironic\" that Syria would say it cares about climate and carbon dioxide emissions.

\"If the Government of Syria cared so much about what was put in the air, then it wouldn't be gassing its own people,\" Nauert said, referencing the regime's chemical gas attacks that have killed dozens of civilians in Syria, according to the UN.

But Trump's stance on the issue is having an effect on the world stage.

French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a climate summit in December with 100 world leaders. French authorities told the Associated Press that President Trump is not invited, saying the leaders invited are \"especially committed\" to the Paris agreement. An invitation will be sent to the U.S. \"at a diplomatic level,\" the official told the AP, but a State Dept. official did not respond when asked if the U.S. would send a delegation to that summit.

Leaders from Canada and Mexico released a joint statement from North American climate leaders on Monday, saying they will work with a coalition of U.S. governors. The statement did not mention the U.S. federal government.

The statement says the organizers plan a dialogue between the invited leaders and will discuss their shared goals at a summit in California in September. Canada's environmental minister posted a photo with California Gov. Jerry Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee at the announcement.

The US Climate Alliance is a bi-partisan coalition of states committed to implementing the goals of the #ParisAgreement. Proud to be working with this committed group of Americans on #ClimateAction #COP23 pic.twitter.com/oTtUXdPMMg

— Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna) November 13, 2017

More high-ranking officials are expected to attend the summit this week for negotiations about how the Paris agreement will be implemented.

ABC News' Jordyn Phelps contributed to this report.

","canonicalUrl":"https://abcnews.com/Politics/tale-us-delegations-climate-talks/story?id=51101699","legacySlug":"/news/story/tale-us-delegations-climate-talks-51101699","noIndexNoFollow":false},"publishTime":"02:00","publishDate":"11-15-2017","updatedTime":"02:00","updatedDate":"11-15-2017","socialImage":{"alt":"Visitors show posters reading \"America's Pledge - We Are Still In\" at the U.S. Climate Action Center during the UN Climate Change Conference COP23 in Bonn, Germany, Nov. 11, 2017. ","credit":"Friedemann Vogel/EPA","ratio":"16x9","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/climate-change-conference-germany-epa-jt-171112_16x9_1600.jpg","width":992,"height":558},"datePublished":"11/15/2017 02:00:00 GMT","video":{"live":false,"id":51101699,"headline":"A tale of 2 US delegations at climate talks","mediaAssetTitle":"DUELING CLIMATE DELEGATIONS","description":"There are two teams, and there may be confusion over who speaks for the U.S.","duration":"1:09","posterImg":{"url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","width":608,"height":342},"video":{"feed":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2017/11/171101_vod_orig_globalwarmingMIX1_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8"},"playlist":["50922240","50681945","47789832"]},"relatedItems":[{"contentType":"story","date":"November 3, 2017","headline":"Humans cause climate change, federal report says, contradicting Trump officials","section":"news","slug":"/news/story/humans-dominant-climate-change-federal-report-contradicting-trump-50922240","id":50922240,"image":{"alt":"Humans cause climate change, federal report says, contradicting Trump officials","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/climate-change-file-ap-jef-171103_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"Patrick Pleul/AP, FILE","ratio":"1x1"}},{"contentType":"story","date":"October 24, 2017","headline":"Climate change will cost US hundreds of billions in coming decades: Watchdog report","section":"news","slug":"/news/story/climate-change-cost-us-hundreds-billions-coming-decades-50681945","id":50681945,"image":{"alt":"Climate change will cost US hundreds of billions in coming decades: Watchdog report","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/GTY-trump-climate-announcement-02-jef-170601_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images","ratio":"1x1"}},{"contentType":"story","date":"June 2, 2017","headline":"How the US coal industry is reacting to the Paris Climate Accord withdrawal","section":"news","slug":"/news/story/us-coal-industry-reacting-paris-climate-accord-withdrawal-47789832","id":47789832,"image":{"alt":"How the US coal industry is reacting to the Paris Climate Accord withdrawal","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/GTY-coal-mine-jpo-170602_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images","ratio":"1x1"}}],"relatedContentSection":"news","schemaContent":{"name":"A tale of 2 US delegations at climate talks","description":"There are two teams, and there may be confusion over who speaks for the U.S.","duration":"1:09","uploadDate":"11-15-2017","publication":"11-15-2017","images":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","url":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2017/11/171101_vod_orig_globalwarmingMIX1_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","contentUrl":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2017/11/171101_vod_orig_globalwarmingMIX1_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","link":"https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/tale-us-delegations-climate-talks-51101699"}},"playlist":[{"id":"132283010","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132273278","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132231169","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132206748","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132200241","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132054443","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132054798","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132033010","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131912713","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131830583","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131834976","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131554765","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131554815","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131543053","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131432442","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131121474","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131247079","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131228784","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131178806","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"131142257","contentType":"story","section":"news"}],"kvps":{"pgtyp":"article","lang":"en","sp":"goodmorningamerica","programmatic":"true","bundleId":"com.abcnews"}},"analytics":{"accountID":"wdgnewwdgnewgmaweb","ns":"gma","pageName":"gma:news:video","pageType":"video","globalSpecVersion":"v1.08","siteDifferentiator":"gma:site","tagID":"g_page01","userABCookie":"0","section":"news","title":"A tale of 2 US delegations at climate talks","pubTime":"21:00","pubDate":"11-14-2017","modTime":"21:00","modDate":"11-14-2017","taxonomyTags":"none","id":51101699,"editorialOtherSubjects":"","wordCount":"none","columns":"none","authors":"","authorsUnit":"none","authorsBureau":"none","subBrand":"Good Morning America","provider":"Good Morning America","videoName":"A tale of 2 US delegations at climate talks","mediaAssetTitle":"DUELING CLIMATE DELEGATIONS","videoId":51101699,"mediaOnPage":"video","legacySlug":"/news/story/tale-us-delegations-climate-talks-51101699"},"taboola":{}},"request":{"headers":{},"httpVersion":"1.1","method":"GET","url":"/video/51101699","vary":{"host":"www.goodmorningamerica.com","cached":true,"path":"/video/51101699","forwarded-proto":"https","device":"desktop","userab":"0"}},"viewport":{"width":1260,"height":0},"user":{}};