There is a self-serving element to the oil and gas industry’s protestations. Their newfound concern for energy poverty in Africa is convenient, when their focus remains squarely on exporting the continent’s resources rather than supplying them locally.

As Napoleon observed, “to understand the man, you have to know what was happening in the world when he was 20”. Much of the senior leadership of fossil fuel businesses still considers wind, solar and electric vehicles to be the expensive, unreliable and small-scale toys they were 20 years ago, not the sophisticated and highly competitive technology they have become.

The shift to low-carbon energy will come much faster than industry dinosaurs expect. But on current trends, it will come slower and less completely than climate goals require.

Read more: The National News