The city of Copenhagen is a climate crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport in shame. World leaders had a once in a generation chance to change the world for good, to avert catastrophic climate change. In the end they produced a poor deal full of loopholes big enough to fly Air Force One through.

The struggle to avert catastrophic climate change is bigger than all the other struggles, whether it is slavery, democracy struggles, the woman's right to vote, and so on I would argue that if what is at stake is securing life as we know it, then there can be no bigger struggle that we face.

Struggles only move forward when decent men and women step forward and say, 'enough is enough and no more.'

The reality is today most of our political leaders want to be treated as gods and semi-gods, from the security details to the fuss around them and so on.

Sandy was a climate change warning. Obama must now take the stage and fulfil the promise of hope the world needs.

[Nelson] Mandela was very keen not to be understood as an exceptional person.

In Durban, where I was born and grew up, and all over Africa, Nelson Mandela was a hero! Now he is a hero to the world.