The absence of the United States – the world’s largest economy and its second-largest polluter – casts a long shadow over international climate negotiations. For Switzerland, the US void has reinforced its position on climate finance, while hindering the possibility of a fossil fuel phase-out. In January, the US notified the United Nations that it would pull out of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change, reached ten years ago at its annual climate conference (COP). Two months before the withdrawal comes into effect, the US delegation chose not to attend the COP30, held earlier this month in the Amazon rainforest city of Belém, Brazil. According to Switzerland’s chief climate negotiator Felix Wertli, the US used to always have a strong delegation whose negotiation positions often aligned with European countries. So, the “dynamic [in Brazil] was a bit different,” he noted, adding that it had felt taboo to mention the US absence, despite its outsized role in both climate …