Nedbank CEO Tom Boardman, Lereko Group executive chairperson Valli Moosa, Shanduka chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa and top academic Dr Mamphela Ramphele were on Tuesday announced as Climate Champions, as chosen by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

As climate champions, the high-profile personalities would join the fight against climate change, by ensuring that government decision makers and political leaders world wide, lead the world towards a future using a cleaner energy supply, ensuring that economies run on a low-carbon principle, and ensuring that the most vulnerable countries in the developing world receive the funds required to adapt to the future impacts of climate change.

WWF CEO Morne du Plessis stated that the organisation chose credible and recognised figures, because they could attract attention of decision makers at the highest level, and speak about what needed to be done in order to combat climate change.

"We simply cannot do enough to impress the gravity of the situation of global warming upon our leaders, our peers and our followers," emphasised Du Plessis.

Indeed, Moosa urged governments to take responsibility and ensure that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December this year, does not dissolve into a mere talk-shop, but that ambitious decisions and binding emission reduction targets be taken on by developed nations.

"Ordinary citizens must raise their voices and push government to take the right decisions," said Moosa, as he argued that climate change was the single biggest challenge facing the world today.

Moosa also emphasised that the issue of climate change presented itself as a "classic case" for the newly formed National Planning Commission headed by Trevor Manuel and Collins Chabane. This was because climate change was a cross cutting issue which would affect every government department, and which every department should take heed of.

Boardman drew attention to the parallels between the current global financial crisis, and the environmental crisis that is climate change. He said that there were early warning signs pointed out by academics before the financial crisis, however, these were ignored, and when the crisis took hold people still underestimated how severe it would be. Once the severity of the crisis was realised, Boardman said that many institutions chose to act individually in attempts to save themselves.

He emphasised that, to a certain degree, the crisis of climate change was similar, but stressed that the world should not ignore the early warning signals put forward by climate change scientists, and should act collectively to ensure sustainability going forward.

"If you look at the amount of money that the world has been prepared to put into stabilising the financial system, just a percentage of the money into climate change, would make a massive massive difference," said Boardman.

Boardman highlighted that the Copenhagen negotiations were crucially important, and should be taken up with urgency, as the pace of environmental changes, such as polar ice caps melting, sea levels rising, and deforestation taking place, were accelerating.