At COP31, Al Gore said Donald Trump’s return to office and withdrawal from the Paris Agreement had emboldened major polluters, even as the fossil-fuel transition commitment remains in agreements signed by all nations.

The United States skipped the UN climate talks; Gore called the absence a “mixed blessing” because administration officials could not directly interfere in negotiations, though a Democratic congressional delegation would have limited influence without official U.S. participation.

Gore called it “literally insane” that one country, such as Saudi Arabia, could block global climate action and urged the UN to replace consensus-based negotiations with a supermajority system.

Nearly 200 nations agreed at COP28 in 2023 to transition away from fossil fuels, but COP30’s 2025 agreement in Brazil omitted an explicit reference to them, with Saudi Arabia, Russia and India blamed by some for resisting stronger language.

At COP31, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez defended their countries’ right to develop their oil industries.

Gore accused Saudi Arabia of trying to sabotage the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; the Saudi government did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

Turkey is promoting a voluntary COP31 pledge to electrify transport, buildings and industry and raise electricity’s share of global energy consumption to 35% by 2035, but the initiative does not specify that the power must be clean.

Gore welcomed the electrification initiative but said it should prioritize clean energy; Climate TRACE analysis presented at the summit found cleaner power grids could double the emissions reductions from electrification.

Gore predicted climate-policy improvements in the United States after Democrats’ strong midterm performance, including a possible restoration of electric-vehicle tax credits.

Gore said the election results could pressure Trump to accept popular climate measures, while Senator Sheldon Whitehouse cautioned that Democrats would need a strategy for a possible presidential veto.