Whisper it quietly, but could it be that they've only finally gone and got it?

I know that it is has become de rigueur for the people who keep an eye on these things to spend the weeks leading up to UN climate talks trying to kid themselves that this time it'll all be different, this time we'll see some real progress, before then having to go through the rather chastening experience of trying to explain why nothing much seemed to happen.

And yet, while remaining mindful of the fact that the green business movement has seen almost as many false dawns as a Geordie football fan, it is hard to escape the sense that a real sea change is now underway.

Much of this optimism can be attributed to the Obama effect. As everyone has noted there will come a time when he will inevitably disappoint, but so far the soaring rhetoric and pro-green policy commitments that characterised the election campaign have simply rolled over into the transition period.

It may not go down as one of his genuinely historic addresses, but his declaration this week that "any company that's willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington... any nation that's willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America", will have sent waves of excitement through the entire green business movement.

What's more the reason for the optimism does not even rest on this rhetoric, inspiring as it is, but on the comparatively dull bedrock of policy and legislation.

Obama always said he would move fast, but the pace has been break neck. We can now expect a meaningful climate bill in front of the US Senate by January and Democratic control of the government means it will almost certainly be passed.

Meanwhile, California is forging ahead towards its goal of becoming the first large scale low carbon economy, this week unveiling another raft of tough legislation and cutting edge clean technologies that are beginning to make the previously heralded EU climate plan look decidedly tame.

It looks like the new business group that was formed this week to call for tougher climate change legislation might just get what it wants.

Over on this side of the Atlantic, the outlook is similarly upbeat.

When Gordon Brown announced, only a month ago, the formation of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) the general consensus was "great idea, but its success will depend entirely on how much clout it is given".

Well, a month on, it really does seem to have borrowed Gordon Brown's "clunking fist". It may not have much of a website, and the staff might still be settling into their new desks but the new department has been remarkably busy.

It has been easy to miss given the media's understandable focus on the economic crisis, but since its formation DECC has quietly heralded a significant toughening of the UK climate change policy.

Ever since it was first announced, green businesses and environmental groups have been calling for the climate change bill to be toughened and extended. Many privately admitted that they always expected their calls to fall on deaf ears, leaving the UK with a curates' egg of a climate change bill - impressive in parts, but fatally undermined by a failure to match emission targets with the realities dictated climate change science,

Instead, since the appointment of Ed Miliband as energy and climate change minister virtually everything green groups have been calling for has been delivered. The emission reduction targets have been tightened to 80 per cent by 2050 and extended to include aviation and shipping, a feed in tariff has been enabled and strengthed to cover more renewable projects than expected, and at the last hour the government has even introduced rules that will cap the extent to which overseas carbon reduction projects can be used to count towards the UK's targets.

Add in the fact that Miliband is also showing a remarkable willingness to stand up to the old school anti-regulation business lobby - to the extent where one green campaigner told The Guardian "Business leaders are telling us they can't remember the last time a secretary of state pissed off their lot so quickly" - and it is easy to understand why some environmentalists are scared to pinch themselves in case they wake up from their reverie.

Of course, with the latest figures showing that global carbon emissions are still climbing these policies need to translate into action as soon as physically possible. But it does seem that for the first time our political leaders are finally beginning to mobilise for the climate change fight.

Let's just hope that in a few weeks time I'm not writing another piece attempting to explain why this apparent sea change in attitude delivered no concrete progress at the UN climate talks in Poland.

Right, I'm off to re-read all this on my mobile.

Have a good weekend,

James