BUSINESS people have been urged by environmentalist Sir Jonathon Porritt to “be the leaders you aspire to be” and take action on climate change.

Sir Jonathon, author and former director of Friends of the Earth, gave the final keynote speech to businesses from Hampshire and Dorset at a conference held by the group Business South.

He said: “Given that it’s 30 years since we signed into being some of the key treaties about dealing with climate change, biodiversity, pollution, waste and so on – and 50 years since we forced business to address these issues – sometimes it baffles me that we find ourselves so far down the gradient of change.

“The environmental challenges that we face now can be summarised extremely easily. They‘re going to get worse, they’re going to get worse faster and they’re going to get worse, faster, everywhere.”

He told the event at Southampton’s Hilton Ageas Bowl: “Technology is going to help but no amount of brilliant technology and wonderful innovation, no amount of technological panache is going to help us with this underpinning environmental issue unless we fundamentally change our perspective about what wealth looks like.

“The reality is that we still have a model of wealth creation that depends on making war on the planet. Economic growth takes priority over everything else. It’s still does. There’s no deviation from the growth-first story in any mainstream political party anywhere in the world.”

He criticised successive governments for cutting regulation and listed some of the ways businesses could help – including solar power, more sustainable building and conserving energy. He urged firms to consider future generations when they made decisions.

“Climate scientists today cannot believe how much faster the climate is changing today than they thought was possible even five or 10 years ago,” he said.

“We do need to take stock of that. We do need to get their heads around the degree to which this notion of accelerating climate change is going to impact on all of our lives really dramatically.

“Have a look through the lens of young people. Contemplating their future for young people today is an utterly miserable thing for them. They know that every single year of their lives from now to the point where they die – and this applies to all of you, by the way – will increasingly be affected by accelerating climate change.”

He added: “There’s no conceivable reason not to be the leaders that you I’m sure aspire to be in this region to increase prosperity for people today in real time and protect the interests of future generations at the same time.”

The event considered a range of issues facing the business community in the south.

Fran Collins, chief executive of Red Funnel, led a discussion on supporting connectivity. Urban planning was discussed by a panel chaired by Richard Summers of architects Boyle & Summers.

Zoe Huggins, chair of Workforce South, chaired a debate about the future of work.

Joe O’Connor, chief executive of 4 Day Week Global, said in a video message; “Surely, more than a century after we introduced the five-day week and the eight-hour day, it’s time for an update.”

Leigh-Sara Timberlake, chief executive of Business South, said the organisation had asked the government to recognise the central south as an economic zone. During the past year, a consortium had represented the region for the first time at MPIM, the world’s biggest property investment event.

She said the region should promote itself as a “region of culture” in the wake of Southampton’s City of Culture campaign.

“No one has to award us that accolade. We can claim it and build on the brilliant City of Culture campaign which truly brought the region together,” she added.