In a packed conference hall in Dubai last week, hundreds of exhausted officials from every part of the world rose to their feet to cheer the result of the UN’s COP28 climate summit.

The text agreed in Dubai was the strongest agreement yet on global action to tackle climate change. It contained a pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” — something that might seem obviously necessary, but had been left out of all previous COP agreements and had been resisted at this conference by Saudi Arabia and other oil producers.

It included a vow to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 — meaning the installation in the next seven years of more than 7,000GW, enough to power the UK 70 times over. And there were pledges to scale up investment in many other areas, from nuclear power to road transport.