Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is once again heading overseas—this time to Brazil—for a United Nations climate conference, extending a well-documented pattern of globe-trotting that has characterized much of her tenure. The Democrat, who is now entering her final year in office and is barred by term limits from running again, has made international travel something of a hallmark during her two terms, earning praise from environmental allies and criticism from those who see her as more focused on international photo ops than the needs of New Mexicans.
According to her office, the governor departed the state on Saturday to participate in a two-week U.N. climate change conference in Belém, Brazil, where she will also speak at several panels in Rio de Janeiro before the official start of the summit. She is traveling without any Cabinet secretaries, though her deputy chief of operations, Caroline Buerkle, is accompanying her. Her travel costs are being covered not by taxpayers but by Bloomberg Philanthropies, founded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg. While Lt. Gov. Howie Morales temporarily serves as acting governor, Lujan Grisham will remain out of state until mid-November.
The Brazil trip is only the latest in a string of overseas journeys that critics say highlight the governor’s penchant for luxury travel at a time when many New Mexicans are struggling with high costs and economic stagnation. In recent years, Lujan Grisham has jetted across the world to attend climate summits and trade missions, building what some have called a “jet-setting legacy” as she approaches the end of her administration. She has previously traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, for the COP26 climate conference in 2021, where she proclaimed, “I am so proud of the work we have done in under three years, but I know that we—as a state, as a nation, as a planet—must go further by pursuing bold, equitable, and just climate solutions.” That appearance marked her debut on the international climate stage, where she began branding herself as a global climate leader.
She followed up that appearance with trips to Egypt in 2022 for the next U.N. climate conference and to Dubai in 2023 for another round of talks, continuing to burnish her image abroad while leaving many in New Mexico wondering what tangible benefits such travel has brought to the state. In May 2024, she led a delegation to Rotterdam, Netherlands, promoting hydrogen production and claiming the trip would “sell New Mexico as a dynamic and thriving place for hydrogen industry investment.” That fall, she crossed the Pacific to Australia to attend the Asia-Pacific Hydrogen Summit, again touting the state’s energy transition goals.
Earlier this year, she embarked on yet another trade mission—this time to Singapore and Japan—where she met with business leaders and foreign dignitaries, including Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, to discuss advanced manufacturing and clean energy partnerships. Her office emphasized that this trip was financed by a private economic development group, but it did little to quell criticism over her constant absences. As one media report bluntly put it, the governor “has spent more time outside the state than in New Mexico over the past five weeks.”
In addition to her foreign excursions, Lujan Grisham has made frequent visits to Washington, D.C., often appearing at National Governors Association events, White House meetings, and national panels on climate and energy policy. Her D.C. appearances have been frequent enough to draw scrutiny from local observers, who argue that her increasing national profile has come at the expense of hands-on leadership at home.
The governor’s office defends the travel as part of a broader effort to bring investment to New Mexico, particularly in renewable energy. However, her international agenda stands in stark contrast with her pragmatic posture toward the state’s oil and gas industry, which remains one of the largest in the country. She has described her approach as “balanced” and “pragmatic,” acknowledging in a September press conference that “someone is going to sue us on either side of this equation.” Despite such rhetoric, her administration faces lawsuits from both environmentalists who say she hasn’t gone far enough to protect residents from pollution and energy advocates who say she has strangled development with regulation.
For many New Mexicans, though, the central issue is less about her climate record than her visibility. From Scotland to Egypt, Dubai to Rotterdam, and Singapore to Japan, the governor has amassed an impressive collection of stamps in her passport—yet the tangible results for New Mexico remain murky. Her defenders point to international recognition and new business ties; her critics see a lame-duck governor more concerned with her global reputation than the realities of a struggling state.
As she attends yet another United Nations conference this month in Brazil—her fifth international climate summit since 2021—New Mexicans are left to question whether these trips are truly about advancing the state’s interests or polishing her personal legacy on the world stage. Either way, the image is clear: while New Mexico grapples with rising crime, lagging education, and persistent poverty, its outgoing governor is spending her final year not in Santa Fe, but jetting across the globe.
Hopefully she’ll stay there