Only pressure from voters can force governments to commit to more ambitious climate programs, former US President Barack Obama said today from the podium of the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.
“The harsh reality is that we will not have more ambitious climate programs coming from governments unless governments feel some pressure from voters,” he said.
Obama first called for addressing the dangers for island states in the face of rising sea levels. He said the countries’ stories in the 2015 climate talks were crucial to the final Paris agreement, which commits countries to keeping the average global temperature rise “much lower” than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“I was shaped by the experience I had growing up in Hawaii,” Obama said.
Island leaders at the COP26 summit pressured Obama over the failure of the United States and other Western nations to meet their commitments to provide $ 100 billion a year in climate change funding.
“Among other things, the United States is not paying its fair share of climate funding,” said Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama. “We are more vulnerable now, they say be patient and wait.”
“Developed countries disappoint us,” he added.
Obama arrived today for the Glasgow climate talks at the start of the second week of talks, which will focus on the essential details needed for more than 190 countries to agree on further implementation of the Paris agreement.
Obama’s goal at the summit is to highlight the path he has taken since the Paris agreement was reached six years ago, but stressed that it remains a much more difficult task.
He said there was a big gap between the optimistic forecast made last week by the International Energy Agency that if the commitments of countries and companies were strengthened, global warming would be reduced to 1.8 degrees Celsius and the UN forecast that existing plans lead to a “catastrophic” rise of 2.7 degrees Celsius this century.
“It makes a big difference for island nations. Any degree we can mitigate counts,” Obama said.
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