COP26: Barack Obama calls out China, Russia for lack of urgency on climate efforts
- Obama’s presence comes as part of a show of force by US officials who are fanning across the summit to argue the country has never stopped fighting climate change
- He began his day in a session on island resilience, sitting alongside representatives from Fiji, Grenada and the Marshall Islands – nations particularly vulnerable to encroaching seas
The UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, is Obama’s first since he helped deliver the triumph of the 2015 Paris climate accord, when nations committed to cutting fossil fuel and agricultural emissions fast enough to keep the Earth’s warming below catastrophic levels.
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“I wasn’t real happy about that,” he admitted.
Despite opposition within Biden’s own Democratic party that has blocked the climate-fighting legislation, Obama said he was confident that some version of Biden’s ambitious climate bill will pass in Congress in the weeks to come.
“It will set the United States on course to meet its new climate targets,” he said.
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“It was particularly discouraging to see the leaders of two of the world’s largest emitters, China and Russia, decline to even attend the proceedings, and their national plans reflect what appears to be a dangerous absence of urgency,” Obama said in the prepared remarks.
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“Islands are the canary in the coal mine in this situation,” Obama said on Monday in his first public address at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. “They are sending a message now that if we don’t act – and act boldly – it’s going to be too late.”
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Obama, who spent much of his childhood growing up in Honolulu, began his day in a session on island resilience, sitting alongside representatives from Fiji, Grenada and the Marshall Islands – nations particularly vulnerable to encroaching seas.
Obama invoked a Hawaiian proverb that he said translates to “unite to move forward”.
“It’s a reminder that if you want to paddle a canoe, you better all be rowing in the same direction at the same time,” he said. “Every oar has to move in unison; that’s the only way to move forward.”
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Obama also nodded to shortcomings by developed nations responsible for the bulk of historic greenhouse gas emissions.
Obama, who helped forge the Paris Agreement – as well as breakthrough climate announcements with China that paved the way for it – will try to rally delegates during a separate address Monday afternoon and will speak with young people working to curb climate change.
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In his afternoon speech, Obama is set to reflect on progress made since the Paris pact’s signing while imploring governments, companies and civic groups to act more aggressively to keep warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels, a critical threshold.
Right now, even if countries fulfil their Paris Agreement pledges, the world will blow past that target, with devastating consequences for island nations, Obama said. But he stressed the world must overcome the obstacles of legacy energy systems, vested interests and domestic politics.
It won’t happen overnight, Obama said, adding that there will be both setbacks and laggards, but “we just have to be determined” and “continually pound away at the problem”.
