The United States redeemed itself from the role of global climate pariah by making its first formal commitment to a worldwide reduction of greenhouse emissions blamed for global warming.
The road there has been long.
Ever since the world's first climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, was adopted in 1997, the US has stood on the sidelines.
At the time, the US was the world's largest producer of heat-causing gas. Although the US helped negotiate the agreement, president Bill Clinton never submitted Kyoto to Congress for ratification as the US cast a wary eye on China's rapidly expanding economy.
President George W Bush in 2001 outright rejected Kyoto.
The reason: Developing countries were exempted from having to reduce their emissions. US opponents argued that would give them an unfair economic advantage.
As a result, the Kyoto Protocol covered only about 25 per cent of global carbon emissions from 2008 to 2012. That figure dropped to 15 per cent after Canada, Japan and Russia withdrew from an extension reaching to 2020.
Much has changed. China is now the highest producer of carbon dioxide emissions with 25 per cent, followed by the US with 16 per cent, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
And as negotiators plan to meet in Paris in December to adopt a new post-2020 agreement, developing countries like Mexico have started to weigh in with their own formal pledges to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The breakthrough came when Chinese President Xi Jinping in November made Beijing's first ever commitment on the issue - to halt peak emissions by 2030 - while standing next to US President Barack Obama.
The White House did an optimistic calculation in its announcement on Tuesday, saying that countries that produce nearly 60 per cent of global carbon pollution have made commitments in one form or another.
It counted not only the formal submissions from the US, Russia, the European Union, Norway, Switzerland and Mexico but also the intentions of China and other countries that have not yet been formally submitted.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the US submission was "evidence" of how Obama and the US are "leading the world".
"We're confident that other countries will now step up and follow our lead," Earnest said.
"And the good news is that these steps aren't just good for the environment, they also are good for our economy."
The US said that by 2025 it will be producing 26 to 28 per cent less carbon pollution than in 2005.
That will entail doubling current efforts launched by Obama over past years to reduce carbon pollution from power plants and automobiles, and to lower other greenhouse gasses - like methane and hydrofluorocarbons - that have thousands of times the warming threat of carbon dioxide.
"The target is ambitious and achievable within existing legal authority," White House climate advisor Brian Deese told reporters.
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