As we heat up, weather patterns are disrupted crop yields are affected sea levels rise (by roughly a centimetre every three years). The surface of our planet cools down by emitting infrared radiation carbon absorbs it.

Until the 19th century, it hovered at around 280 parts per million by the 1910s it had reached 300 today it’s around 412. Temperatures have historically varied as part of a natural process, but what’s very unnatural is the leap in CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere. Only yesterday the World Meteorological Organisation announced that the last seven years have been the hottest on record. To deal with these in reverse order, climate change very much is happening - in fact at a rate that renders the modest goal of Cop26 (to limit global temperature growth to 1.5 degrees) increasingly unlikely. The “Carrie Wears the Pants” theory of British politics hinges upon the assumption that Boris doesn’t have a philosophy, hence it’s easy for friends and family to make him believe anything – plus the suspicion that the climate scare is slightly overblown, that the British government has fallen, yet again, to capture by idiot experts. Many backbenchers seem convinced that Boris is only keen on this stuff thanks to the malign influence of his wife.

Conservatives ought to wish Boris Johnson the best of British at Cop26, not just to get the promises and, crucially, the technical commitments required to save the world, but to shape the debate over the kind of environmentalism we’re going to get. Climate conferences are boring, duplicitous and elitist.

How to kill liberty prime