Peering back through the tunnel of three frustrating decades, it’s hard to believe that, as the 1990s opened, the world expected to quickly agree on effective action to tackle climate change.
Back then, the stars did seem to be aligned. In 1988, a top climate scientist, Jim Hansen, then head of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, had finally thrown off the caution of the scientific community and told the US Congress that global warming was 99% certain to be taking place.
His statement – made on a June day when temperatures conveniently topped 101°F (37°C) in a room where the organisers had deliberately closed all the windows to ensure that the legislators felt the heat, literally as well as metaphorically – moved the issue from mere scientific discussion to a matter of policy.
