The answer, particularly in the US, is with breathtaking ease. The president, Donald Trump, has ramped up his attacks on climate policy in recent weeks – quitting the Paris agreement again and repealing a finding that underpins pollution controls – while going global with his “drill, baby, drill” policy. Chris Wright, the US energy secretary and former fracking executive, has pressured Europe to roll back methane standards and sustainability rules that could threaten American exports of liquefied natural gas. On Wednesday, he urged spreadsheet-wranglers at the International Energy Agency to “drop the climate” from its models.

Even in Europe, where polls show citizens overwhelmingly accept climate science and support stopping planet-heating pollution, a quiet but deadly form of denial has emerged.

Far-right parties have gained ground across the continent, even as they make fighting climate policy – aided by the Heartland Institute, a US thinktank funded by fossil fuels – their second priority after immigration.

Centrist leaders, alarmed by their success and anxious to placate polluting industries, are rolling back green rules with a vigour that has surprised even some lobbyists. This month, ahead of a meeting in Antwerp between the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and business leaders, the EU’s carbon price – the cornerstone of its pollution-cutting efforts – found itself in the crosshairs of the powerful chemical industry.