The greatest solution to climate change can be found not in the atmosphere, but deep in the earth’s interior, where core temperatures soar to about 5,000ºC, nearly as hot as the surface of the sun. If the heat contained in the first 5km of the earth’s surface could be harnessed it would supply about 500,000 times the current world energy demand, wiping out the planet’s reliance on climate-warming fossil fuels.

The trouble with geothermal energy, which literally translates to “earth heat”, is accessibility. Certain favourable geological conditions must exist to allow the heat to transfer from deep “hot zones” to the surface, where it can be converted into electricity or heat.