Spurred on by the need to act against climate change now, the debate, held at Northumbria University’s City Campus East Business & Law Building was chaired by BBC Look North’s Adrian Pitches,

Panellists for the BBC Question Time style event were Alan Charlton from Extinction Rebellion Durham, North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll, Dr Mike Jeffries, Associate Professor in Ecology at Northumbria University, Mike Pratt, Chief Executive of Northumberland Wildlife Trust and Vicki Mordue, Managing Director of Biodiverse Consulting.

The debate offered over 300 people the opportunity to have their say on environmental threats and climate change and spanned a wide range of environmental issues with the first half including questions on climate change and global warming, transport, health, wellbeing and the benefits of nature and policy change.

The second half of the debate addressed Brexit and protection of European species, nature protection, forestry, planning and development.

The panellists were united on a number of issues especially climate change which led Jamie Driscoll to comment that climate change will wreck the economy and that there needs to be a change to the law so companies can operate sustainably. This view was endorsed by Alan Charlton who said: “We need economy which is ethical, ecological, regenerative and reconnected with nature.”

As expected, the panellists shared their concerns for wildlife when Brexit finally happens. Mike Pratt, a lifelong conservationist said: “Whatever happens, we (Northumberland Wildlife Trust) will continue to fight for environmental protection” and Ecologist Dr Mike Jeffries said: “There is no reason for a change following Brexit, but serious economic shock will result in cuts to environmental funding.”

Again, there was unity on the subject with Mike Pratt announcing: “We played a big part in the industrial revolution; the north east has a duty to start a green industrial revolution.” 

Jamie Driscoll followed this with: “Coal mining in a climate emergency is wholly unjustifiable, but we need serious government policy for a fair transition to clean energy and transport.”

Transport was a recurring theme throughout the evening with Vicki Mordue declaring: “Businesses face difficult decisions on sustainability vs the price of transport - we need better investment in public transport”. Jamie Driscoll who is passionate about public transport said: “Our transport is chronically underfunded supported this view. We needs investment in infrastructure to make eco-friendly transport appealing.”

With all the housebuilding and development in the north east, there were valuable comment from the panel with Jamie Driscoll calling for proper regulations and planning framework and Mike Pratt saying: “We need a ‘Nature First’ approach, but until then we’re going to continue to cause damage to irreplaceable environments.”

The final question of the evening posed by Martin Stead saw all panellists agreeing to support one another as they work together to tackle global warming with Vicki Mordue saying that the panelists should have “mutual respect for each other”. Mike Jeffries saying we should “listen to and learn from each other.“

Mike Pratt received the loudest cheer of the night when he concluded the event by saying: “Tonight we’ve all come together to start a change and we’ll continue to do so. We need to keep active hope alive for the future.”