Former Greenpeace executive director Kumi Naidoo has called for major changes in a bid to deal with “irreversible, runaway and catastrophic” climate change.

He told delegates at the annual Windaba, in Cape Town, that even the approach of the environmental movement and progressive parts of society was “wholly inadequate”.

“It is not only our leaders in government and business that are suffering from cognitive dissonance. The environmental movement itself is in denial as to how close to the cliff we actually are.”

Naidoo, who now heads the Africa Civil Society Centre, said it was not enough simply to fine companies for excessive fossil fuel emissions.

“Going after companies that are behaving badly and hoping that interventions will get us to where we need to be is not enough. The climate clock is ticking and we have to get our interventions in line fast with what science tells us we should do.”|

Naidoo said he was designing a new global campaign which would target banks, lending institutions and pension funds. It was aimed at stopping the flow of capital to climate-destructive activities.

The campaign will soon be launched in Marrakech, Morocco.

“We have to recognise that the world needs an accelerated climate change strategy. It cannot be baby steps or business as usual,” he told several hundred delegates involved in the wind energy industry in South Africa.

The former Greenpeace leader said excessive inequality and greed were hurting the planet.

“We need to start getting serious about ensuring that our continent is moving in the direction of 100% renewable energy. If we do that, we will not only address climate change, but also generate more jobs. It will also address one of the most crucial problems – an illness called ‘affluenza’ where people feel they can only be happy by getting more, more and more.”

Naidoo said politics was having a significant impact on the rise in emissions.

“We lost six powerful years through [former US President] George Bush being a climate denialist. We need to factor in that we may have someone in power, Donald Trump, that is even more crazy than George Bush. I’m freaking out because it’s not dissimilar to what played out in the Brexit vote.” 

Naidoo called for leadership in Africa on the climate change front. 

“If you do not invest in young people . . . to turn the crisis of climate change into an opportunity . . . you will actually be betraying their future.

“African countries do not have to consistently be on the receiving end of knowledge and patents from the rest of the world. Africa can move forward in a way that it is generating knowledge and registering patents.”

Naidoo said people continued to rapidly erode resources and drive up carbon emissions.

“If we carry on with our dependency on greenhouse gases, we will warm up the planet until the water sources get depleted. We will be gone, but the planet will still be there. It will be battered and bruised by humanity’s scars, but the oceans will recover and the forests will replenish. The issue about energy is whether humanity can fashion a way in which we can co-exist with the planet.”