With the Covid-19 pandemic starting to recede, activists are again moaning that industrial emissions are destroying climate. But having wrecked national economies once to fend off the virus, policymakers are proving reluctant to wreck them again for the climate cause.

In mid-May, governor of California Gavin Newsom proposed cancelling much of the $US12 billion worth of climate initiatives originally announced only in January, which included feel-good programs for encouraging companies to buy electric cars and more useful spending on projects to prepare for floods, droughts and bushfires.