In the last few months, there have been several significant developments in international climate negotiations. In July, the leaders of the world’s major developed and developing countries made an unequivocal commitment to avoiding a global temperature rise greater than 2C relative to pre-industrial levels. More recently, there has been a marked shift in the positions of both China and India, who have announced that they will undertake new measures to limit the anticipated rapid growth of their national greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades. And the United States, sensing an opportunity to build a new consensus to combat climate change, is pursuing bilateral agreements with both countries that it hopes will serve as stepping stones to a comprehensive global climate agreement.

While these developments are extremely po

The draft document includes sections on the traditional sticking points that have delayed progress on climate change to date. Photograph: John Giles/PA

It is a blueprint to save the world. And yet it is long, confusing and contradictory. Negotiators have released a draft version of a new global agreement on climate change, which is widely billed as the last chance to save the planet from the ravages of global warming.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, covers his face during the closing session of the UN climate change talks in Bangkok today. Photograph: Barbara Walton/EPA

Global climate change talks came to an end in Bangkok today in an atmosphere of distrust and recrimination, with the rift between rich and poor countries seemingly wider than ever. After two weeks of negotiations there have been no breakthroughs on big issues such as money or emissions cuts.

A fisherman walks over the the dried bed of a reservoir of Lam Takhong. The US has agreed in principle that allocation of climate aid will be independently agreed Photograph: VINAI DITHAJOHN/EPA

The US has made the first move to bridge the yawning gulf separating rich and developing countries on the money needed to secure a successful climate change deal at crucial UN talks in Copenhagen this December.