Barack Obama's trip to Alaska underscored the difficulty of squaring the economic benefits of fossil fuel exploitation with the global campaign to reduce carbon emissions.
Alaska is a long way from Australia but both have been featuring in the climate change debate for similar reasons – and each has strong reasons for needing to retain its resource development strength.
US President Barack Obama made a headline-grabbing trip to Alaska last month to promote greater urgency about countries coming up with a new climate change pact in Paris before the year's end.
