Scott Morrison’s confirmed trip to COP26 in Glasgow now makes it essential that he clinches an agreement on a net zero by 2050 target inside his own Coalition. Without backing from the Nationals party room this weekend, the Prime Minister goes empty-handed to a global summit, and leaves his government looking hollow in purpose and resolve.

Mr Morrison wants a target, the voters want a target, and big business has pivoted to a target. Labor may now play dead on climate, but from the Liberal right, Peter Dutton, Malcolm Turnbull’s nemesis, ominously says that he expects a deal to be done. Eleven years of political agony over climate, the ousted prime ministers and the failed policies now come down to whether Coalition MPs can just agree among themselves.