At COP26, Obama calls on most states to take more ambitious action

Published on : 08/11/2021 – 20:17

Barack Obama calls for more to be done. Most countries have lacked “ambition” to implement the Paris climate agreement, regretted Monday, November 8 the former US president, asking participants to “do more” and praising the “anger” of youth on the climate crisis.

“Most countries have not been as ambitious as they should have been,” said Barack Obama, invited to speak at COP26 in Glasgow, where he was greeted with a standing ovation.

And even if he felt that there had been “progress” since the Paris agreement in 2015, “we have not done enough to face this crisis and we will have to do more”, a- he launched. “We are very far from where we should be.”

“Vote as if your life depends on it”

Like current President Joe Biden, he regretted the absence of the Chinese and Russian heads of state at the conference, judging that “if there is one thing that should transcend our differences, it is global warming. “.

He also paid tribute to the youth climate protest movement and to its Swedish muse Greta Thunberg, welcoming that “there (are) plenty of Greta around the world”.

“You have to stay angry, stay frustrated, but you have to channel that anger and that frustration and push harder and harder to always get more, because that’s what is needed,” he said. address of youth.

He called on young people to “vote as if your life depended on it”, even if they view politics with “cynicism”, to “put pressure on business” and to seek to “persuade people who are not from it. agreement or who are indifferent “. “We cannot afford desperation,” he insisted.

With AFP