Multilateralism has rarely looked this miserably defunct, and never in post-war history has there been this little anguish about the dire state of international cooperation. The response to the grim predicament is simply a universal shrug of resignation.

Listen to this article 6 min Listen to this article 6 min Climate change is a tough topic to write about, let alone confront. The problem itself is complex, and the potential solutions are a frightening combination of expensive, inconvenient, long-term and multilateral. Faces tend to glaze over.

But the desperate need for action and the fact that the world has made precious little progress towards solving it is evidence of a broader trend; the collapse of multilateralism, or mutually beneficial cooperation of numerous nations towards a common goal. This was on display all too clearly at the most recent COP29 conference, this time in Baku, the capital of the murky petrostate of Azerbaijan.

The ending of COP29 was, if nothing else, predictable. An announcement was pulled out of the proverbial hat, but opinions were almost immediately divided as to its merits. And given the track record of implementation on previous such agreements, a healthy degree of skepticism is merited.

The entire issue is worryingly reminiscent of the development aid discussions of the 2000s. Multiyear funding pledges are lumped together to make them look bigger and combined with laughably optimistic "private capital" leveraging estimates. Existing aid spending is given a...