The US often projects a self-ascribed role of acting for the benefit of others in the world. At COP18 it, along with the EU, must move beyond a concern for its interests alone, and live up to its obligation to act for the other people inhabiting this planet. The world’s richest have both the responsibility and power to breath life into a process they have done much to stall – at the expense of the world’s poorest. If they do not, then the cost, which will be measured in human lives, will be on their shoulders.