Abstract

The final years of the 2000s marked a pivotal time regarding the issues of climate change mitigation and adaptation. At the international level, climate negotiations were leading up to a possible successor treaty of the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen. The United States’ (US) role had been shifting significantly, from climate villain to possible climate leader, with the inauguration of Barack Obama. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travelled to China in February 2009 to open a dialogue on climate mitigation, thereby seeking to overcome what has become an entrenched North–South impasse (Goldberg 2009). This dialogue – and possible progress from the two greatest contributors to climate change on planet Earth – may take on particular significance if a bilateral partnership can eventually be brokered that will inspire more coordinated and multilateral climate policy action.