IT was reported on November 5 that 11,000 scientists in 153 countries have declared a climate emergency and warned that “untold human suffering” is unavoidable without huge shifts in the way we live.

There can be no doubt that we are in the midst of a climate crisis that puts the future of humanity and much of the rest of life on earth at considerable risk.

It has also become clear in recent years that while individuals recycling materials, eating less meat and flying less can make some difference and are to be encouraged, they will not on their own solve the problem.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made it clear that we have to make systemic changes in our societies if we are to avoid the oncoming nightmare.

It is also certain that people will not be happy with a lowering of living standards.

The answer then has to be the green new deal.

This will see the kind of investment in sustainable, environmentally friendly jobs, such as building solar panels, which will provide good jobs in the future whilst also protecting the climate.

And the North-East should be at the heart of this.

We were one of the world’s greatest energy producing regions when we had the coalfields.

We could be a great energy producing region again, this time producing green energy.

There are those who will say that the green new deal will cost a lot of money. It will.

But in the long run, it will save far more if it combats the climate crisis and saves humanity from extinction.

The consequences of not establishing a green new deal are too terrible to contemplate.

Peter Sagar, Newcastle