Keynote: Vusi Thembekwayo

Humanity must ensure that positive change comes out of the unprecedented social and economic turbulence caused by the convergence of climate change and the global Covid-19 pandemic, said businessman and global speaker Vusi Thembekwayo.

“We must focus our minds on how we seize the moment,” said Thembekwayo in his rousing keynote speech.

Thembekwayo warned that discussions on whatever change is needed must include all voices, all on an equal footing. “The real work of our time is the work of inclusion,” he said.

People the world over need to step out of the communities in which they exist and be willing to discuss humanity’s next steps with everyone else, and with every partner in the discussions having an “equal seat at the table” – climate activists with industrialists, and government officials with people from indigenous communities. Everyone has something to offer, he said.

This is also not a time for pointing fingers or shifting blame, Thembekwayo said. The world has seen unparalleled economic development since the Industrial Revolution, so that gross domestic product (GDP) per capita anywhere in the world is “incomparable” to GDP per capita before that time. This means that even someone in a least-developed country has played a part in climate change.

“We have to work as a single global community to bring about a just transition,” Thembekwayo said.

Economic and social progress since the Industrial Revolution has been unequal, Thembekwayo said. The question now is how to devise a platform through which all of humanity can discuss climate change equally, and ensure that the inequality that is a characteristic of post-industrial human progress is a thing of the past.

“I’d hate for us to miss the opportunity to seize this moment,” he said, referring to the turmoil created by the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change happening at the same time.

The world is still not addressing climate change at a rate equal to the rate at which it is happening, he said.

People from the developing world need to ensure that the socio-economic transformation that comes about as a result of the move to a more sustainable economy does not perpetuate the injustices of the past, Thembekwayo said.

They have much to offer. There are indigenous knowledge systems that set out ways in which people can live within nature, and people from the developed world need to listen to their peers from the developing world without prejudice.

People need to be willing to ask themselves uncomfortable questions, and to step outside of their usual communities, groups and thought patterns, he said.

“We have to bring ourselves to a point of passion. We have to own [this passion], love it, live it. Passion is going to be the single most important basic human emotion” if humanity is to imagine new ways of living and, importantly, put these ideas into action, Thembekwayo said.

He added that it is more important to “ask the right questions” than to have the right answers, and it is critical to remind leaders everywhere that their duty is to serve their communities. Instead of giving in to the impulse to criticise others, all of humanity needs to find the courage and patience to work together towards mutually beneficial solutions.

“This is our moment. This is our task. It is the collective responsibility of our generation.”