THE three main US presidential hopefuls all bode well for the fight against climate change, according to the UN's top climate official.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Yvo de Boer said that John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were "interested in climate change, all three want international engagement, all three favour

a cap-and-trade approach (to carbon emissions), which augurs well for the continuation of the carbon market".

"There is now, I believe, a global consensus that cap-and-trade is the way to go," the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change told the business newspaper.