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Today saw the Pan Africa climate hearing open to a room packed with journalists and climate activists. All of us waiting eagerly for Archbishop Desmond Tutu to share his thoughts. Irungu, from the Oxfam team, reminds us that climate change is not happening in the future, when our grandchildren will be our age, it’s happening right now.

Archbishop Tutu’s speech was grave and hilarious at the same time. He started with a joke: “You say I don’t need any introduction, but a lady recently rushed up to me and said: hello Archbishop Mandela – so you see, you get two for the price of one.”

He said that climate change is everyone’s problem: “You will drown if you don’t act. We are going down the tube together. Some might go in Mercedes Benz, others in local taxis.”

His Grace reminds us that Cape Town was the home of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was set up to bear witness to human rights violations that took place during the Apartheid era in South Africa.

He says: ‘Today we will hear testimonies of another grave injustice, climate change. It is having a significant impact on the people least responsible for it. Just think of what’s happening in Samoa right now.”

Then came the climate witnesses who spoke passionately about their own experience of climate change. Caroline Malema, from Malawi, said, “I’m crying for the nation and the international community to help.”

Fanta Darria, from Mali, told the audience, ‘This is not a game. We are living this life and we would like to get out of it. I am not begging. We need simple things like seeds and equipment. We want to be trained to cope with the new situation.”

South African Ragel Hesselman spoke, “We have the will and the knowledge but we can’t solve all these problems on our own. We must be part of the solution and the leaders must listen to us so we can tackle climate change together.”

Constance Okollet, also from South Africa, says: “God is now crying because his people are suffering for no reason. The next generation are not going to be there. The rich countries who are doing this – I ask them to stop. We are dying for them.”

Archbishop Tutu wrapped up the morning session with the most extraodinary and spontaneous call to action: “It is good to laugh. If we didn’t laugh we would be crying. Wake up! Wake up!”

“We in this country have the experience of being able to defeat apartheid. But we couldn’t do that on our own. We had help from the international community. We need the same kind of galvanising and campaigning as we needed for apartheid. Because climate change is a kind of apartheid. Each one of us has a crucial role to play if we want our children to survive. We are going to need a serious campaign that is going to make governments realise they have no choice. Each of you has a voice. Make it heard. We are going to swim or sink together.”