When endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh was standing on the edge of the ice at the North Pole about to dive in, there was only one thing going through his mind.

Pugh’s environmental concerns had driven him to one of the coldest places in the world for a symbolic one-kilometre swim he hoped would galvanise world leaders into action.

“I wanted to show world leaders and the public that the Arctic had melted so much you could even swim across the North Pole,” he said.

He explained that without that to get him through, it would have been all too easy to be overwhelmed by fear.

“When you’re standing on the edge of the ice and the water is minus 1.7 degrees, you’ve got to be really focused. Because in that moment, fear can cripple you,” said Pugh, also known as the ‘human polar bear’.

“You’ve got to have made your mind up that you’re going to get in and finish the swim, and you’ve got to have a reason for doing it.”

Calling the area a “high-consequence environment”, with the nearest port a seven-day sail away, Pugh said the 18-minute and 50-second swim “felt like 18 hours”. But his efforts didn’t go unnoticed.

As Pugh and his team began the long sail back, his satellite phone started lighting up with calls from media organisations around the world, including US talk show giant Jay Leno.

All of them wanted to speak to the man who had just become the first person to complete a long-distance swim at the North Pole.

Pugh was recounting the events of 2007 while visiting Malta to give a keynote speech at Deloitte’s annual forum on Friday, where he spoke about his efforts to combat climate change and “believing in something greater than yourself”.

This was not his first time in the country, however, having spent some time in Malta as a young child. Pugh’s mother and father met in Malta while working as medical staff in the Royal Navy, with the family later being stationed at the old naval hospital in Mtarfa when Pugh was around five years old.

'Like meeting an old friend'

At Friday’s conference, he was welcomed on stage by Maltese Olympian swimmer Neil Agius, someone Pugh describes as special.

“There are very few swimmers in the world who can even imagine what he goes through. What Neil is doing now is discovering the outer edge of human capability,” he said.

“There are literally only two or three swimmers in the world who can do the type of distances he can do... it’s truly astonishing what he’s been doing. Neil is special.”

Pugh explained that although he and Agius had been communicating over the phone for several years, this visit was the first time they had met in person, adding their rapport had been instant.

“It was like meeting an old friend,” he said.

On Saturday morning, Pugh and Agius swam together for the first time at Mellieħa Bay, joined by 50 members of the public and those from Agius’s Ocean Festival and Waves of Change Malta communities.

Lewis Pugh and Neil Agius yesterday kicked off the day with a public swim at Mellieħa Bay. Photo: Jonathan Borg

'We’re running out of time'

Afterwards, Pugh spoke to the public about the importance of ocean conservation and tackling global climate change, two things close to his heart.

“About a million species of plant and animal now are at real risk of going extinct. So, I try to do swims in places that are really threatened and then afterwards get them protected,” he explained.

Pugh’s swim across the Ross Sea in Antarctica in 2015 helped lead to the creation of a protected marine area around 1.5 million square kilometres by convincing Russia to sign up to protect the fragile ecosystem.

Since then, however, international efforts appear to have stalled, with The Guardian reporting in December that not a single G20 country was on track to achieve the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

Is Pugh disheartened by this?

“There is a lot of talk happening. But real systemic change which is required to actually tackle the climate crisis? I’m not seeing that at the moment. And yes, of course, I’m frustrated,” he said.

“We’re running out of time. And we can’t keep saying we’re running out of time, because we really are running out of time.”

Aside from its role in Pugh’s efforts to combat climate change, exercise is something he is passionate about more generally, explaining that in addition to swimming he also trains by running, kayaking and lifting weights to “keep things interesting”.

“Exercise is so important for your mental health, not just your physical health. And I know that I’m not centred as a person unless I’ve done some exercise... It’s really important,” he said.

But with obesity on the rise in Malta according to a National Audit Office report last year, does Pugh have any advice for people struggling to start exercising?

“Start. Just start.”