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On Wednesday morning I had an extraordinary sense of déjà vu.

I was about to fly out to Morocco to the UN Climate Change conference to see how each nation is doing in meeting the commitments they made in the Paris Agreement.

The election of Republican Donald Trump , who claimed climate change was a Chinese conspiracy, could lead to America – one of the world’s biggest polluters – pulling out.

That is exactly what happened at the 1997 Kyoto Agreement, which I helped to negotiate with Bill Clinton’s Vice President Al Gore . We all expected Gore to win the presidential election in 2000 but he too lost to a Republican – George W Bush.

Bush said he wouldn’t sign up to the deal. So we made it clear that no matter how big they were, we wouldn’t allow the US to veto a global agreement.

Ironically with the help of Russia, we got it ratified. The election of President Obama eventually led to the Paris Agreement. But yet again, a Republican wants to walk away from their responsibilities to the world.

Trump might think he can solve his migration problem with Mexico by building a wall. But the catastrophic effect of climate change knows no borders. It seems Americans were much more keen to change the political climate at home.

Hillary Clinton may have had more political experience than billionaire businessman Trump. But to Middle America and the average Joe, she embodied the status quo.

(Image: REUTERS)

It’s a country, likes ours, where many working class men and women didn’t feel the benefits of globalisation, only its brutal effects of suppressed wages, deindustrialisation and rising inequality.

Trump may not be a brilliant orator or be praised by the liberal elites in the media and politics.

But he identified some key problems, peddled simple answers and talked in a language that spoke to people who felt left behind.

And there are big lessons for Labour to learn. People who voted for Trump or Brexit aren’t racist or stupid.

They are not all bitter, uneducated white men. They were women and men from all colours, classes and creeds.

Trump and the Brexiteers won because for too long, political parties have taken voters for granted and lost millions of their core voters.

In 1997, Labour won because we were the change people wanted. A radical government to take those ­traditional Labour values and place them in a modern setting.

But in 2015 people were asked to choose between a Tory party keen to pursue failed austerity politics to cut the deficit, or Labour who would cut a little slower and appeared to agree with some Conservative policies.

Voters didn’t see Labour as being any change at all and stuck with the devil they knew.

But a year later, when the people were finally given a voice in the referendum and the chance to change against the establishment, they took it. And they roared.

For Sunderland, Hull and Boston, now read Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Hillary Clinton met the same fate as David Cameron.

(Image: Getty)

The wins for Trump and Brexit are a vote against the globalisation of corporate, political and financial power. The Davos elite of bankers, politicians and businesses who brought about the financial crash of 2008 must be quaking in their boots.

But, like climate change, global problems still require global solutions and co-operation. And Trump can’t walk away from that.

The challenge for progressive ­politicians around the world is to meet people’s concerns with radical ideas that work.

Radical ideas to boost housing supply and deliver free education for all to give us the high-skilled ­workforce businesses need.

And radical ideas to reclaim power and resources from Europe not just back to Westminster, but to push them out to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and every English region. The people are angry and disillusioned with politicians.

Peddling easy solutions that don’t work will only make them more disillusioned.

But if Labour can give them answers that are bold, radical and deliverable, to create jobs, protect public services and generate growth, then we may get another political earthquake sooner than we think.