The United States took its first step towards reducing carbon emissions on Friday night when the House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill that would set the country’s first ever limits on its greenhouse gas production.

President Barack Obama hailed the vote, which scraped through by a 219-212 tally, as a “bold and necessary step” that marked a “spirit of change” towards climate change in the US – echoing the words of Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, who had described a “sea change” when she met the US president earlier in the day.