Prime Minister Tony Abbott has failed to rally more “like minded” nations to his cause of opposing US President Barack Obama and other leaders pushing stronger international carbon regulation.  Only Canada has signed on.

The UK’s Conservative Party climate and energy minister Greg Barker says his country will go along with Abbott’s challenge to international regulation of carbon emissions.

“I think you can take it the UK won't be joining an alliance against regulation.  We are engaged with Australia and New Zealand, encouraging them to take a responsible proactive part in seeking an ambitious global treaty on climate change,” Barker said.

Nor is Abbott finding an ally in our own hemisphere.

“This government takes climate change seriously,” said a spokeswoman for New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.  “That is why we were one of the first countries to introduce a comprehensive emissions trading scheme and why we're actively involved in international climate change efforts.”

Abbott has previously described climate change as “absolute crap”.  After obvious changes in the climate and the “angry summer”, he’s upgraded that opinion to publicly recognizing climate change as a problem, but not one of the world’s most-pressing matters. 

And that’s the attitude he’s taking into his first White House meeting with Mr. Obama on Thursday.