ABSTRACT
Barack Obama has been criticised in some circles for his rather cautious approach to action on climate change, particularly in his first term. In his second term in office, Obama restated his commitment to tackle climate change, and made clear to Congress his determination to use his executive authority if Congress was unable or unwilling to act. There followed a number of policy initiatives. These included the Clean Power Plan (CPP), arguably one of the key environmental policy initiatives since the 'golden age'. On the international arena, the growing US/China relationship on climate change played a key role in the COP21 Paris climate change agreement in December 2015. Despite its limitations, COP21 represented a significant development in international co-operation on climate change. In January 2017, Donald Trump settled into the White House as the 45th President of the US. Trump has issued a string of executive actions to roll back action on climate change, including the rescinding of the CPP.
