The United Nations’ annual climate conference kicked off on Monday in Brazil with a very notable absence. In a historic political statement, the United States did not send any high-level representation to the flagship COP30 conference in Belem, the biggest and more important international event of its kind. This omission comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s decision to pull the country out of the Paris climate agreement. But while the world’s largest economy is taking a step back from decarbonization and clean energy…