Ah Phillip I hear your frustration but if we look specifically at climate change, I have been, and still am, involved on a technical basis (not managerial, administrative or environmental; let alone political) in some of the few climate change (CDM / UNFCCC) projects in SA and Africa. These were initiated by the Kyoto Protocol and many countries took full, er, very much too full, advantage of the schemes that gave good income.  But not SA or Africa. Politicians and government agencies interfered (the SA CEF for example), set mad conditions, delayed and obfuscated. By the time they were vaguely organised (and its still a mess in SA today), the horse had bolted.  The low hanging fruit had been plucked (as had a lot of European countries), the 2008 financial crisis arrived and the not so ethical schemers, mainly towards Asia, were pretty much exposed.  CER's went from say 10US$ to maybe 1US$ if you are lucky. So for every finger you point at say Europe, there could be 3 pointing back.