Earlier this week, I found myself, in the sweltering heat, on the roof terrace of a swanky Soho club. A specially curated modern art exhibition adorned the walls. Around me the conversation buzzed excitedly as celebrities rubbed shoulders with shadow cabinet members.
 
The reason for this glossy affair? It was the launch of the Conservatives’ Climate Campaign.

I was intrigued for a number of reasons. There was a sense of youth, energy, and excitement that had a strong echo of the mid-1990s when new Labour was becoming newly-fashionable. This felt like the place people wanted to be.

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor spoke. The campaign promised “bold and transformational policies to allow Britain to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050” and “a big NO to any new coal-fired power station that does not have carbon capture and storage from day one”.

Business turned out in force, too. Indeed the launch booklet was full of ads from sponsor companies, such as Asda. Sponsored policy-documents are a rather depressing sign of the times, but at least, I reflected, the Conservatives are being up-front and transparent about the fact that business is paying.

Change is certainly afoot. A decade ago, I just can’t imagine the Conservatives launching such an initiative. Now they feel edgier than the government on the climate change agenda. The raffle – there always has to be a raffle at a Tory do – was to fund their campaign against a third runway at Heathrow!

We have yet to see how deep climate concern runs in the Conservatives, or the detail of their policy prescriptions. But as I sipped my glass of wine on that warm summer evening, I did get a strong sense of tectonic plates shifting.