Ian Williams: Obama should use the UN to restore America's image around the world

...They will start with an immense reservoir of good will from across the world, but there will be limits. Even the litmus paper issue of climate change and carbon usage, espoused by Ban Ki Moon as his big issue, is not universally popular in the developing world, where they have reasonable suspicions that it is an attempt by industrialised countries to pull the ladder up after them.

Continental shift -- or drift?

So Prime Minister Stephen Harper is going to make common cause with his new friend Barack Obama on a continental approach to climate change. A stunning reversal by a long-time climate skeptic, a cynical dodge, or good news for planet Earth? At the moment, all three are possibilities -- although a green victory party may be premature.

Analyst: Climate change bills could spell the end of local manufacturing

THIBODAUX – If passed, climate change bills gaining momentum in Congress could drive the U.S. manufacturing sector offshore within two decades, including fabrication and shipbuilding in the Terrebonne and Lafourche area, a researcher with a Washington think tank told business leaders Thursday.

With a bill like America's Climate Security Act before Congress last year, "We basically wipe out manufacturing in the U.S.," said William Beach, the director of the center for data analysis at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.