It was not long after dawn and only a handful of fishing boats from Gaza city harbour were still out at sea. Some had come in earlier to offload the night’s sardine catch, most hadn’t bothered going out at all. Nearly all the small fleet’s wooden boats, their paint fading, lay anchored up in the harbour, as they have for most of this year.

A multimillion-dollar plan to help sub-Saharan African and other poor countries adapt to climate change is being formulated by British diplomats on the eve of a key international meeting. More than 100 countries are gathering this weekend in Nairobi, Kenya, for the conference on global warming with the aim of providing an extended life to the Kyoto agreement.

Running into traffic in a built-up neighbourhood in affluent north Tehran, Sina Mahdavi quickly loses patience. He accelerates, veers perilously close to the kerb to overtake a Peugeot 206, then zig-zags inside to whizz past another car in a hair-raising flash. The speedometer reads 80kph and seconds later we are bumper to bumper with another vehicle in front.