One of the lessons from the Copenhagen climate negotiations is that the United States does not wish to negotiate climate multilaterally. The Obama administration is focused massively on domestic law, centred on the cap-and-trade approach. Its market could then be linked bilaterally with those who also have markets, threatening the rest with border measures. A scenario of "oligo-lateralism" would allow the US to rewrite the rules, while it still can. We urgently need to design a more equitable, inclusive and therefore effective multilateralism. Some characteristics are sketched in this article.
