I once had occasion to watch these men as they trooped in and out of first class hotels in an Asian capital, sleek figures in gold buttoned blazers. It was striking to see how often the most prosperous looking representatives came from the world s poorest countries.

The Paris summit is likely to be a buttoned down diplomatic battle among countries for grants to support their pledges to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of the pledges that will be made particularly in ravaged lands like Somalia, northern Nigeria, and Iraq s Anbar province is entirely uncertain.