Next week, representatives of 17 of the world’s biggest economies – and biggest emitters of greenhouse gases – are to gather in Honolulu, Hawaii to discuss how they can tackle climate change in the coming decades.

The meeting is the initiative of George W. Bush, US president, and will be the second in a series of meetings intended to forge agreement on some of the key questions facing governments in dealing with climate change. Mr Bush surprised the world last year by calling the meetings, in the first major initiative on climate change of his presidency.