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Then comes the annual parade of climate scientists warning we’re facing imminent catastrophe.

Followed by the mandatory flailing of the developed world for not shipping enough money to the developing world to fight climate change, while environmentalists of all ages mug for the cameras.

In years where a UN climate accord is being negotiated or an important (albeit artificial) deadline has been reached, there are breathless media reports that the countries are far apart in negotiations, followed by a miraculous, eleventh-hour agreement — typically after the conference’s official close — that can “save the planet”, although much more needs to be done.

Photo by Aijaz Rahi / AP

Then they all go home and start preparing for next year.

Next year’s COP 25 (in UN lingo),was supposed to be in Brazil, but since its new president isn’t a fan of the Paris accord, it’s been shifted to Chile with an assist from Costa Rica.

COP 26 will be in the UK or Italy. Both are bidding since it will be the most significant meeting since Paris in 2015, because 2020 is the deadline for countries to increase their (non-binding) commitments to cut emissions by 2030.

So why is it all a fraud?

Because the best way to assess the sincerity of politicians is not by what they say but by what they do.

And after a quarter-century of these annual UN circuses, global emissions last year reached a record high of 32.5 gigatonnes (32.5 billion tonnes), with another record expected for 2018.