For climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, the United Nations' COP26 negotiations are, in her memorable phrase, all "blah, blah, blah". Or as she put it more eloquently last week: "This is now no longer a climate conference, this is now a Global North greenwash festival."

At the other end of the establishment spectrum, Britain's Queen Elizabeth expressed a parallel — if more measured — view of the Glasgow summit: "The time for words has now moved to the time for action."