The Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC – or ‘COP28’ – is almost upon us. Like an expensive holiday season, it rolls around faster each year, knocking on the world’s treasuries with a ‘tax or die’ greeting. To save the planet, you must pay up. Is it an ice age, global warming, climate change, or global boiling? Who cares … as long as it comes with a ticking clock.

Events such as these are packed full of ‘start-ups’ and billion-dollar companies flogging some new ‘green thing’ that will ‘save the world’.