A strange thing is happening on the eve of this year’s United Nations-backed COP summit, known as COP28, when almost 200 countries and 70,000 delegates will gather in Dubai this week for the annual dust-up over how, and how fast, to tackle climate change. Many people are feeling oddly optimistic.

The pre-show theatrics around a COP are usually fraught with gloom and doom: a litany of end-is-nigh press statements and cynical geopolitical posturing. But not this time.