COP26: Obama hits out at China and Russia for ‘lack of urgency’

• Scientists are saying top polluters like China, India, and Russia are moving far slowly on fighting climate change than what is needed

• Nations have not signed deals to cut emissions by 2030 yet

Former U.S. President Barack Obama criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin for not joining other leaders at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow and expressed concerns for a “dangerous lack of urgency” in cutting climate-wrecking emissions.

“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 lack of urgency,” Obama said.

As nations complained of lagging progress in the climate talks, Obama, one of the leaders who paved the way for the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, an international treaty on climate change, admitted that “images of dystopia” were creeping into his dreams.

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“There are times where the future seems somewhat bleak. There are times where I am doubtful that humanity can get its act together before it’s too late,” Obama said at the United Nations climate talks. “(But) we can’t afford hopelessness.”

U.S. in climate talks

The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow is Obama’s first visit since the Paris climate deal which pushed the nations to commit to reducing fossil fuel and agricultural emissions fast enough to keep a check on global warming below catastrophic levels of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

After Donald Trump became the president, he pulled the U.S. out of the Paris accord in 2017, however, President Joe Biden put America back in the climate deal.

On the other hand, other top polluters — including China, India, and Russia — are moving far more slowly on fighting climate change than scientists say is needed.

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“1.5 Celsius is on life support now; it’s in ICU,” Alden Meyer of environmental think tank E3G said.

Setbacks

Till now, no deals have been signed on the three main goals of the U.N. conference — cut emissions in half by 2030, the need for yearly $100 billion financial help from rich countries to poor ones; and the idea that half of that money goes to adapting to global warming’s worst effects.

Several other issues, including carbon trading and the transparency regarding national emissions commitments, also weren’t solved yet.

Representatives of 77 developing nations, along with China, said that the talks couldn’t be considered successful until COP26 produces financing to help emerging countries.

Picture Credit: Sky