There’s a simple way to unite everyone behind climate justice – and it’s within our power | George Monbiot

Cancelling poor nations' historic debts would allow their governments to channel money into climate adaptation

It has proved too easy to stop people uniting around the crucial issues of our time. Those who demand better pay and conditions for workers and justice for poor people have been pitched by demagogues and corporate lobbyists against those who demand a habitable planet.

For years, we have struggled with the question of how to overcome this division and create a social and environmental justice platform that could unite vast numbers of the world's people. Only one thing was clear: any such campaign had to be led by activists from poorer nations. Now, I believe, the breakthrough has arrived.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist