Andy Rowell

History will be made today at a ceremony in New York when countries start to formally sign the Paris climate agreement, which was initially approved in December last year.

As the saying goes: the stone age did not end due to the lack of stones and the oil age will not end due to lack of oil. It will end due to climate change and the coming clean energy revolution.

They came. They talked. They talked some more. They failed to reach a deal. And so the turmoil within the global oil industry continues.

I want to tell you a story about a man called Bob. Bob runs a large multinational oil company. His company has just recorded its worst ever record loss of $6.5 billion. He has sacked some 7,000 workers, ruining lives and ripping up livelihoods. His company has suffered a torrid, horrible year. His share price fell 13 per cent over the last year. His competitors all did much better.

“Do we really care so little about the Earth on which we live that we don’t wish to protect one of its greatest wonders from the consequences of our behaviour?”

It is a significant legal ruling in what has been described as the “most important lawsuit on the planet right now”.