July was earth’s hottest month on record, leading UN Secretary-General António Guterres to comment: “We have always lived through hot summers. But this is not the summer of our youth. This is not your grandfather’s summer.”

The UN-led Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its latest dire warnings this past week about the implications for the planet as the biosphere gets warmer, so it was timely that veteran environmental campaigner Jonathon Porritt came to Belfast to speak to a packed house at a ‘Climate Breakdown’ event organized by the Linen Quarter BID and sponsored by local businesses, Queen’s University and Belfast City Council.

With wildfires raging in Siberia and other parts of the Arctic region being only the latest manifestation of what Greenpeace has called a “climate catastrophe,” Porritt said the current moment represented “an important point of inflection in the history of humankind.” While scientists might tell us we have ten or twelve years to take action, he said, “we have a far shorter period of time than that, and if we don’t begin to move now it may well run away with us.”

The truth is, he said, “everything is getting much worse, much faster, everywhere.”

A major obstacle to how we proceed, according to Porritt, has been the gulf in understanding between the “tight-knit” community of climate scientists and activists on one hand and the “vast majority of people in the rest of the world” who may not even be aware what’s going on.

“People are just catching up to the fact that this is a big deal in all of our lives. And because of the really deplorable, poor quality of the political discourse around this for two decades, most people are still trying to come to terms with what this is.”

Porritt said on a BBC podcast recently that when the data evidence started to become overwhelming about 15 years ago, it was “particularly frustrating to see how slow politicians had been to respond to that scientific advice. I think we’re seeing a change of pace now.”

And he told the Belfast gathering of more than 500 people at the Clayton Hotel that climate is “just one of the big things we’re up against at this moment,” highlighting the emergency in the state of the natural world, with the heightened potential for species extinction; as well as the “worsening crisis of inequality” which could lead to challenges of climate-related migration.

As Porritt and the evening’s other speakers put it, these pressing global problems can only be effectively addressed by cities and countries working collectively and in collaboration with their people. “And we have to begin by telling the truth.” Even, he said, when the truth is “worse than anyone can actually believe.”

But if we use the window of time wisely, he said, we hopefully can “assume that it’s not too late” to work towards practical solutions. For example, there was potential progress to be made in energy efficiency “even though politicians like to go for shiny new tech stuff like renewable energy.”

Attempts to address the converging set of crises around climate and biodiversity, he said, have taken place during “four decades of full-on neoliberal capitalism” which is why he argued what is now needed is a new approach to sustainable wealth creation.

“We’re not just dealing with a climate emergency, we’re dealing with a way of life; a model of progress, addressing a system of creating work that has clearly not done the job for people on a global basis.”

Climate and the need for political leadership was a key component of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s recent speech in Belfast, and the Dublin government’s climate action plan, published in June, seeks to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030, and introduce a nationwide charging system for electric vehicles. Society’s relationship with the automobile and approach to urban transportation is something Porritt highlighted as being indicative of the type of change necessary as we move forward, particularly in terms of understanding exactly what we are prepared to give up, from our cars to our food.

“If you think there’s another 20-30 years, for slightly more efficient internal combustion engines to be on our roads,” he said, “you have not understood what the word emergency means.” Especially, he went on, when “personal improvement in our material standard of living is very often tied to the possession or ownership of a private vehicle.”

Porritt’s words and warnings will certainly be ringing in the ears of Belfast City Council’s all-party working group on sustainability, which is scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss local next steps.

With about a third of Belfast’s population under 20 years old, one of Porritt’s recurring themes was about the need for “intergenerational justice” and our ongoing “generational obligation.” Collectively, “we have not done a terribly good job” at preparing the world for the people of tomorrow,” he said.

But he said he has been “energised” by the activities of young people and the emergence of new social movements: “progressive, radical, social; in which young people are playing a significant part, and have already been influential in shaping our strategic direction.” He praised direct action groups like Extinction Rebellion and paid tribute to Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who inspired the school strikes for climate movement, which has grown into a remarkable worldwide phenomenon in a short space of time. The next global climate strike is planned for 20 September and it looks set to be a big one.

By 2020, Porritt said, there will be two billion people on the planet between the ages of 13 and 22 “and they will have a level of hyper-connectivity we have only been able to dream about.”

And that gives him cause for optimism, even in the face of what appears to be constantly worsening scientific evidence. “At this point in human history, these new socially progressive radical movements are going to grow and grow,” he said.

“The reason why I’m inviting you to be a little bit hopeful about the future is there are lots of things that can grow exponentially in the world. Think about two billion hyper-connected, young people reacting to the reality of what a climate-disrupted world looks like for them.

“Hold that in your minds and in your heart. We now need to think differently about our future; businesses still have to improve what they’re doing. This event has been a really important contribution from the business community and it’s supported politically.

“We still have to go on doing that stuff, but just imagine how much further that could be accelerated when we’re able to deploy that incredible energy of young people at every point in the system.”