Climate change negotiations among the world’s developed nations for the last 25 years have moved at glacial speed. But in the past ten days, entrenched positions have melted faster than the polar ice caps. For the sudden thaw we have one person to thank: Angela Merkel.

Her gradual build-up of pressure on George W Bush, at times so subtle it went almost unnoticed, on Thursday June 7 resulted in a notable shift in international relations on global warming. As of the G8 meeting, the Kyoto protocol – the only international agreement ever to contain legally binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, which scientists say is necessary on a huge scale to safeguard the planet - had been unexpectedly salvaged from its slow demise at the hands of diplomatic intransigence. The unlikely rescuer? President Bush.

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“Breakthrough” is not a word generally associated with international talks on climate change. Nor is “progress”. The words that most often accompany reports on global warming negotiations are “stalemate” or “deadlock” or “frustration”.

And from a first glance at the G8 declaration on climate change – all 38 pages of it – you would be forgiven for thinking that it was just more of the same.

But hidden on page 16, under item 52, is a quite remarkable change to the international landscape on climate change.

The US has agreed to start negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto protocol at a UN meeting in Bali later this year.

Why is that so remarkable? Because since George W Bush became president, the US has rejected the Kyoto protocol and blocked attempts to start negotiations on a successor to the treaty when it expires in 2012.

So is it a breakthrough?

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How many businesses have a "chief energy officer"? And how many need one?

The question emerged from a new piece of research conducted by Hill and Knowlton, the PR company, among 420 senior business executives from the US, UK, China and Canada.

The survey found: a majority of senior technology leaders from around the globe (82 per cent) closely monitor the issue of global warming; most do not have a defined energy strategy to deal with it (65 per cent);

more than three quarters of business decision makers surveyed (77 per cent) believe there is a need to expand the C-Suite to include a Chief Energy Officer (CNO) to manage, implement and measure a company’s return on investment in environmental technology, the so-called Return on Environment (ROE).

I have never come across a company with a chief energy officer (or one that measures its "return on environment", come to that), and I wonder what type of companies might need one. For most companies, the most important energy issue is whether the lights stay on. In developed countries, that’s a given. Therefore designating someone at board level with such a title seems like overkill. But perhaps there are companies out there with "CNOs". Examples?