KEY POINTS:
Climate change was high on the list at the Apec leaders' summit as countries with opposing views came together to discuss what to do about their greenhouse gas emissions.
The topic has featured at many heavyweight political meetings since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, and it pops up often as officials and ministers travel the world negotiating agreements.
We take a climate change world tour.
KYOTO
First stop is the place where the big fuss started. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in late 1997, but didn't come into force until early 2005. New Zealand has ratified the protocol, committing itself to cutting average net greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels between next year and 2012. It looks highly unlikely we will achieve this.
The United States and Australia decided against ratifying the protocol, and so don't have to do anything about their emissions.
NEW YORK
The home of the United Nations, where a convention was adopted in 1992 creating a flexible framework for governments to tackle climate change.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has been signed by 191 nations, and a meeting of its supreme body is held every year.
RIO DE JANEIRO
The 1992 Rio Earth Summit followed the UN convention, and drew more attention to the dangers of climate change, putting it firmly on the global political agenda.
SYDNEY
What happens after 2012 when the commitments of Kyoto-aligned countries expire is now a hot topic. The Apec grouping of 21 nations had climate change on its agenda but there was such a wide range of positions that Prime Minister Helen Clark mused that the "wisdom of Solomon" would be required to get a clear communique. The problem is that some Apec countries, including New Zealand and Canada, have ratified Kyoto, and some, including the US and Australia, have not, making any sort of consensus almost impossible.
There have been some eyebrows raised about climate change being discussed at Apec, as a successor to Kyoto is expected to be developed in separate UN talks.
There is also an argument that just getting the United States and Australia to talk about the issue is an achievement.
VIENNA
A few days before the Apec meeting, a UN group met in Vienna under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to set the stage for the annual UN climate meeting in Bali in December. It discussed setting a post-2012 target of taking emission levels to between 25 and 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. That would be an extremely difficult target for New Zealand to meet, and its officials drew the ire of the environmental movement when they shied away from it.
The Vienna meeting showed how hard it would be to get countries to agree to mandatory targets after 2012.
BALI
The host for December's UN meeting, which will discuss what to do about greenhouse gas emissions after 2012. The meeting could move toward a more comprehensive global agreement requiring deeper cuts.
NEW YORK (AGAIN)
Finally, we go back to the headquarters of the United Nations where this month a meeting will be held to try to kick-start talks before the Bali meeting.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon called the meeting apparently out of concern that negotiations were not moving quickly enough to make Bali a success. Senior minister Trevor Mallard will represent New Zealand at the meeting.
