Brown and other American climate crusaders see the G-20 meeting as a crucial moment. Several world leaders who will attend the summit have already signaled that they will confront Trump on climate issues during its proceedings, and a move is afoot to conclude the meeting with a written reaffirmation of commitment to the Paris guidelines that would ostensibly be signed by every G-20 every nation except the U.S. — underscoring how far out of alignment with the rest of the world Trump is on the issue.

But even before the summit began, unity among the other countries was already starting to fray. While Western European leaders vowed to push the issue, countries such as Russia, Indonesia and Turkey were expressing less bombast. Saudi Arabia — which is still bullish on climate action but is also eager to remain in good diplomatic standing with the U.S. amid its dispute with fellow American ally Qatar — is also hedging.

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“Jerry Brown is working very hard to try to get to a compromise on extending California’s flagship climate policy, but it is a compromise,” said Michael Wara, a professor of energy law at Stanford. “It is complicated and messy. And it involves trade-offs that sometimes mean giving up environmental benefits in order to placate legacy fossil fuel industries that are still politically important in California.”