Former US President Barack Obama said Monday he understood why young people were “frustrated” with climate inaction from leaders and that “most countries have failed” to live up to promises they made in the Paris Agreement, IgbereTV reports.
Obama, who was US leader in 2015 when the landmark accord was struck, said the world needed to “step up” its emissions-cutting pledges and work together to limit global temperature rises.
“We have not done nearly enough to address this crisis,” he told delegates in Glasgow. “We are going to have to do more and whether that happens or not to a large degree is going to depend on you.”
In the six years since the Paris deal — which seeks to limit global heating to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius — planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions have continued to mount, and an assessment last week said that carbon pollution will rebound this year to pre-pandemic levels.
“By some measures the agreement has been a success,” Obama said. “(But) we are nowhere near where we need to be yet.”
He admitted that “some of our progress stalled” when his successor Donald Trump chose to unilaterally withdraw the US from the Paris deal.
President Joe Biden re-joined the accord when he took office.
Obama said that China and Russia — whose leaders skipped a high-level segment in Glasgow last week attended by more than 120 heads of state and government — have shown a “dangerous lack of urgency” on climate commitments.
“Most countries have failed to be as ambitious as they need to be,” he added
