As I write my last column, the facts on climate crisis speak for themselves

Delegates at the first UN climate conference in 1995, where they were implored to reduce greenhouse gases to save the planet. Photograph: Dpa Picture Alliance/Alamy

In 1995, when the first “conference of the parties” (Cop) of the UN’s climate change convention met in Berlin, the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was approximately 360.67 parts per million. The then German chancellor, Helmut Kohl, gave a passionate speech about how greenhouse gases must be reduced to save the planet from overheating. There was a relatively unknown East German woman, the environment minister, Angela Merkel, chairing the conference. She was red hot at keeping order. The UK journalists concluded she would have a bright future.

Immediately after the conference I was commissioned to write a book about climate change called Global Warming: Can Civilization Survive? It sold well and was the first of several.