US president Barack Obama addressed in a panel world leaders attending COP26 summit.
He said that “youthful impatience” and the willingness to speak truth is absolutely vital in tackling the climate crisis.
The national plans still don’t get to the 1.5C target, to prevent the worst impact of global warming, he added.
He also siad that naturally makes people feel “discouraged”. He also says that if countries follow through on pledges made then “that’s real progress, not enough but progress”.
But that requires activism and citizen pressure between COP events to make sure countries follow up, he added.
Obama went on to say that “the politics in the United States are not always easy”.
He said his successor – referring to President Donald Trump – “maybe wasn’t as interested in climate science as I was” but he says that there are a lot of people in the US government who “care about this deeply”.
Former US president Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii, is speaking at a panel on island resilience at COP26.
He begun his speech by declaring he is “an island kid” and says he is proud of the work he did as president to work with island nations “who are most vulnerable to changing climate, even if they did less than the larger nations in actually causing the climate crisis”.
He said the islands are “in many ways the canary in the coal mine” and says they are sending a message that if we don’t act now it is going to be too late.
