With the talks entering the final 24 hours on a knife-edge, the emergence of the document seriously undermines the statements by governments that they are aiming to limit emissions to a level ensuring no more than a 2C temperature rise over the next century, and indicates that the last day of negotiations will be extremely challenging.

It is telling of the times in which we live that the Danish government today is seeking to curtail legitimate protests around the Copenhagen climate summit this December (Countdown to Copenhagen, 2 November).