George Bush

Less than a year after the IPCC warned the world that global emissions need to peak within the next 10 years (and then fall sharply), Bush - with much fanfare - has unveiled his new, cunning climate change plan: emit more for the next 17 years, and make sure developing countries help pay for what the US and the industrialised world has already emitted.

His address yesterday came during the latest Major Emitters Meeting - a series of meetings set up by Bush to undermine run in parallel to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change process (the UN's process being inconvenient because it wants mandatory rather than voluntary emissions targets, and says the industrialised world should bear the burden of responsibility for historical emissions).

So, no surprises last week as George Bush's climate change summit ended up being pretty much what everyone expected it would - a futile and elitist talking shop which was a vain attempt for the outgoing president (15 months and counting) to say that he 'did something' about climate change.

UPDATE - 12.40pm: There have been boat chases and arrests near the G8, as Greenpeace inflatables entered the exclusion zone.

After a week of farcical manoeuvrings and diversions in the run up to the G8, today’s the day of reckoning; this afternoon, Angela Merkel, George Bush, Tony Blair et al will sit down in Heiligendamm to talk about climate change. The interplay of power between them will help determine if, how and when climate change is seriously tackled by the world’s most polluting countries.