It would have been almost unbearable, another diplomatic breakdown. With a world more divided than it has been in decades, and two global agreements meant to protect the planet having crashed earlier this year.

That is precisely why it was logical for the EU to finally give up at this year’s climate summit in Belém, Brazil. Until the final night’s uninterrupted negotiations, Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard (Moderaterne, M), as chair of the union, stood firm on blocking an agreement that did not address the excessively high emissions of greenhouse gases and the fact that countries’ climate plans are nowhere near capable of keeping temperature rises below two degrees. This is the goal of the ten-year-old Paris Agreement, which the summit aims to maintain the credibility of.