Know better. Do better.

In the Art of the Deal, the best-selling book by Donald Trump, the incoming U.S. president and real estate developer explains his guidelines for deal-making.

Whatever your thoughts on Trump, it seems the world's environmental negotiators could do with some advice on the subject.

Last week, Busan in South Korea held the fifth and final round of negotiations for a global U.N. treaty to tackle plastic pollution. Only they weren't final. No deal was agreed. Countries will have to resume talks next year.

The same thing happened at U.N. COP16 talks on biodiversity in Cali, Colombia, which had to be suspended. Then at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, a deal was finally reached, but roundly condemned by developing nations.

Spare a thought for the negotiators who've travelled to all three countries in the space of two months. I've heard there are at least a handful. And there's yet another U.N. environmental conference taking place this week on desertification in Saudi Arabia.

Can we put the disappointing results down to circumstance? It's not the first time U.N. environmental meetings haven't delivered. And wealthy governments are particularly squeezed for cash at the moment.

Or is multilateralism in trouble? In Baku, distrust brewed between countries. Halfway through, a group of high-profile climate scientists and diplomats called for an overhaul of the COP system, including streamlining attendee numbers and having stricter criteria for hosts.

Whatever their flaws, COP summits and other negotiations have led to significant progress. The Paris Agreement in 2015, for example, established international climate targets and binds countries to submit climate plans. The 1987 Montreal Protocol slowed down and reversed the depletion of the Ozone layer.

Beyond international agreements, the private sector is transforming itself with unprecedented changes - from the global surge in renewable energy to green finance. But as the impacts of climate change hit harder and become ever more costly, global cooperation has not become any less important.

Perhaps one of Trump's tips could come in handy. In his book, Trump tells the reader to enhance the location, which is the "key to success".

He, of course, was talking about real estate. But next year, the U.N. COP30 is taking place in Belém, Brazil.

After a succession of COPs in oil-producing states, this means bringing the world's negotiators to the Amazon rainforest.

If that's not an enhanced location, I'm not sure what is.

See you next week,

Jack