12 Climate change quotes by inspirational leaders

Climate change has become one of the greatest threats to global security. From climate activists to policymakers, people of diverse backgrounds now talk about how important the issue is to everyone on Earth. These powerful quotes offer a new perspective, and hopefully motivate you to take action.

Climate activists

1) “[T]he climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change.”
― Greta Thunberg, Climate activist

2) “If we want a future that is liveable and healthy for everyone, it has to be sustainable, it has to protect the people, it has to protect the planet.”
― Vanessa Nakate, Climate activist

3) “Everybody has the right to development, which means everybody has the right to clean energy.”
― Sunita Narain, Centre for Science and Environment

4) “If we put together all the knowledge systems that we have — science, technology, traditional knowledge — we can give the best of us to protect our peoples, to protect our planet, to restore the ecosystem that we are losing.”
― Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT)

Policymakers

5) “We have to start moving beyond targets, we have to start moving beyond aspiration, we have to start moving beyond statements of hope, and deliver signs of action.”
― Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand

6) “The small island countries in the Caribbean, in the Atlantic, in the Pacific, and in the Indian Ocean and around the world, are on the frontlines of being swallowed into an abyss, created initially by human activity and increasingly by inaction.”
― Hubert Minnis, Prime Minister of the Bahamas

Public intellectuals

7) “The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.”
― Sir David Attenborough, Naturalist

8) “Climate change is redefining what it means to be generous.”
― Rachel Kyte, Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University

9) “The awareness of climate change means we, in every profession we are involved, are increasingly obligated to understand the climate risk and put whatever we are working on as part of the solution.”
― Kotchakorn Voraakhom, Urban landscape architect

10) “To leave the world better than you found it, sometimes you have to pick up other people’s trash.”
― Bill Nye, Science communicator

11) “I’m often asked whether I believe in global warming. I now just reply with the question: Do you believe in gravity?”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist

12) “Are we going to look our grandchildren in the eye and tell them that we understood the issues, that we recognized the dangers and the opportunities, and still we failed to act?”
― Nicholas Stern, the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics