Ministers gathering in Libreville for the first African ministerial meeting on environment and health should avoid getting distracted by ill-defined problems like "climate change" and focus on the real environmental killers: dirty water and fuel.

There is a growing idea that rich countries should slash imports from poor countries whose antiquated factories are heavy carbon emitters: this eco-protectionism is in fact good old-fashioned protectionism and would hit the poor hardest. What hurts the poor right now is not climate change but poverty: growth is the only way out.