When you are trapped in the middle of an unprecedented storm, all efforts are focused on the short-term but essential task of simple survival. Long-term challenges, no mat­ter how serious, are pushed into the background.

So it is no surprise, as the world tries to come to grips with the severest financial crisis for generations, that energy security and climate change have fallen down the agenda. This is doubly true when the dramatic rise in the price of oil that helped fuel these concerns last year has collapsed as the global downturn has reduced demand.