Last year in Heiligendamm, the gathering of G8 leaders produced that rarest of things in the world of international climate change negotiations – a measurable shift in position.

President George W. Bush of the US arrived in Germany having just proposed a new initiative on climate change: a series of meetings of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. But it was not clear whether this was intended as an alternative to the United Nations process on climate change, which is focused on forging a successor to the Kyoto protocol, the main provisions of which expire in 2012.