Trump is skipping the UN’s climate conference. Some New Englanders are filling the void.

As local climate leaders head to the United Nations annual global climate talks — this year, in Belém, Brazil — it’s hard not to think about 2017.

That’s the last time that the talks were held during the first year of a Trump administration. Back then, less than six months into his first presidency, President Trump made his message clear: Washington was not interested in international cooperation to tackle the climate crisis.

Then, as now, representatives from states, cities, nonprofits, and corporations flocked to the conference to try to send their own message: “There’s more to the US than what is coming out of Washington,” said Lou Leonard, who is now dean of Clark University’s School of Climate, Environment and Society in Worcester.

Read more on The Boston Globe.