Just hours after President Trump signed his budget reconciliation bill on July 4 gutting U.S. climate policy, leaders of emerging market countries were gathering in Rio de Janeiro for the BRICS summit. Advancing climate efforts ranked high among their priorities . Days earlier, the European Union’s executive body had announced a new 2040 emissions reduction target with greater ambition than earlier goals.  This triptych underscores a new dynamic. For all intents and purposes, the U.S. has ceded