President Obama did attempt to give global leadership on the climate issue, by attending the UN's Copenhagen climate summit in 2009.

BBC: Climate change makes late surge in US elections

The whole issue of global climate change is something our administration is serious about.

CNN: Karen Hughes discusses Bush's global agenda

"Ms Whitman was very positive about climate change being a global issue, about the scientific evidence and that the Kyoto framework was something they should work within, " a senior British official said.

CNN: Climate talks secure U.S. support

The truth is that neither side of the issue on climate change or global warming can claim to have science on their side.

FORBES: A Concise Slice of Climate-Science History

Verification is also a hugely contentious issue at international negotiations on a global climate treaty.

BBC: US researchers map carbon emissions at street level

The challenge of global climate change, for example, is a social issue for an oil company but also for many other businesses, governments and individuals.

FORBES: Clarifying Corporate Responsibility: Part II

As Judith Curry, a climatologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, observes, attacks on climate scientists, sometimes paid for by carbon-emitting industries when global warming first became a public issue, have made many researchers in the field nervous and defensive.

ECONOMIST: Leaked e-mails do not show climate scientists at their best

Evidenced by public cooling towards global warming peril as a hot campaign issue, it is apparent that the Democrat party has been encountering a political climate change.

FORBES: Election Campaigns Prove Global Warming Crisis Skeptics Won The Climate Debate