After diplomats gathered in Bonn last week, the immediate future of the UN's long-running climate change negotiations will be decided in the last preparatory meeting in Tianjin, China in October, where a negotiating text should be drafted before the summit in Cancun, Mexico in November.

The EU's co-lead negotiator Connie Hedegaard said the negotiations had "if anything, gone backwards". Any attempt to end the standoff between industrialised and developing countries will face numerous challenges after participants at the latest round of climate change talks in Bonn said that the negotiations had reached their lowest point in several years.

The divergence between poorer nations and the US was fully evident last week as developing countries modified the negotiating text to include more ambitious carbon emission-reduction pledges from industrialised nations and demand greater levels of financing to help them adapt to climate change.

The US envoy said that some countries have "walked away" from commitments in carbon emissions made at last climate change summit in Copenhagen last year to cut carbon emissions. However, diplomats from poorer countries said the Copenhagen deal had always been weighted in favour of richer countries, arguing that the latest changes to the negotiating text had simply served to deliver a fairer and more balanced document. Meanwhile, the US also reportedly clashed with the Chinese negotiating team over the vexed topic of how to verify whether countries are making good on carbon emission-reduction pledges.

Figueres said that countries must "radically narrow down their choices" at the next climate change meeting in Tianjin

It is expected that China's offer to host the last round of preparatory talks would stress its commitment to the climate change negotiations, and could cover the way for some sort of last-minute step forward. Optimism was further stir up today by reports in the China Securities Journal that the Chinese government is preparing to publish a five trillion yuan ($739bn) investment plan for "newly developing energy industries", such as renewable, nuclear, clean coal and smart-grid technologies.

The plan has reportedly been submitted to the State Council for approval, prompting speculation that it could be formally announced at the Tianjin climate change meeting as part of an attempt to kick-start the stalled negotiations.

However, recently appointed UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said progress had been made towards an eventual deal, but admitted that a huge amount of work needed to be done at the week-long meeting in Tianjin if there was to be any chance of meaningful progress being delivered at the Mexico climate change summit. She added that countries must "radically narrow down their choices" at the meeting in China.

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