Environmentalists must drop their “capitalism equals bad” attitude and embrace business if next month’s Cop28 climate summit is to stand any chance of success, a former oil industry boss who is helping host the event has said.

We’d actually suggest that everything after “attitude” is superfluous there.

“For far too long the climate conversation has been seen through the lens of activists equals good and capitalism equals bad. And this needs to change if business is going to be a big part of the solution.”

Leave aside all the Marxist wibble about class and capitalism is simply a system in which the savings of these people, here, are mobilised to fund that business over there. And, at this level of analysis, any system that does that is capitalist. The capital comes from, belongs to, those outside the business or organisation doing the whatever it is.

At which point clearly and obviously capitalism is going to be a part of the solution to climate change. As any large scale mobilisation of economic resources must be. Simply because that’s what it means, that mobilisation and divorce between who is providing the capital and who is doing the thing.

So, yes, shrug.

Except, obviously, for those whose embrace of climate change activism is the opportunity to overthrow capitalism. But as that means the end of large scale economic activity that’s always going to remain a distinctly minority view, isn’t it.

Isn’t it?