Sophie Yeo

But while measures to curb emissions and reduce the impacts of rising temperatures will be good for the many, the few who work in industries affected by climate policies risk losing their livelihoods as the economy leans increasingly upon renewable energy.

In 2011, solar power reached a tipping point. This was the year when the solar industry had saved more greenhouse gases than it emitted.

The refrain of the conference soon became that the Paris Agreement, sealed last year, was bigger than any one country, or any particular head of state. The next four years will prove whether this is true.

The money used to tackle climate change — “climate finance” — comes in many guises, which means that measuring it is a mammoth and complex task.

Over the last century, humans have littered the oceans with plastic, pumped CO2 into the air and raked fertilisers across the land. The impact of our species is so severe and so enduring that the current geological time period could soon be declared the “Anthropocene”.

Academics gathered in Oxford this week to discuss how to constrain fossil fuel supply as part of efforts to tackle climate change.