At COP26, Obama says ‘saving the planet is not a partisan issue’

Former US President Barack Obama spoke at COP26, the 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change in 2021, this Monday (8). According to him, curbing emissions and worrying about climate change “is not a partisan issue.”

“Saving the planet is not a partisan issue. It doesn’t matter your party. Climate change can be seen around the world as an opportunity to gain political points. For those who listen to me in the United States, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. If your home in Florida is flooded by the ocean, nature, physics and science don’t care about your party affiliation,” Obama said at the COP26 plenary.

Obama also directed part of his speech to young people fighting for the climate. “We need everyone, even if we disagree on other issues. And, which is also true around the world, is that the most important energy [na luta pelo clima] it is coming from the young”.

Also according to Obama, the policy of his successor, former President Donald Trump, was “hostile” with the climate. Obama’s speech comes a week after President Joe Biden himself appeared at the conference, during which he explicitly apologized for Trump’s abandonment of the Paris climate deal.

Obama also appears at COP26 amid international doubts that Biden, Congress or the United States really take climate change seriously.

“I recognize that we are living at a time when international cooperation has atrophied in part because of the pandemic, in part because of rising nationalism and tribal impulses around the world, in part because of a lack of leadership on the part of states. United for four years on a range of multilateral issues,” Obama said acknowledging US failures under Trump in the area.

“Of course, back in the United States, part of our progress stopped when my successor unilaterally decided to renounce the Paris Agreement in his first year in office. I wasn’t very happy about it,” he said. The former US president also reaffirmed what many world leaders and activists highlighted throughout COP26. “When it comes to the weather, time is running out,” he said.

Obama recalled the commitments already made at the COP in Glasgow, such as reducing methane emissions by 30% and ending deforestation by 2030.

Obama Highlights Youth Climate Activism

In directing his speech to young people, Obama said they are the main force in combating climate change for a “simple reason”: “they have more to lose than anyone else.”

Quoting Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, Obama also stated that there are “many Gretas” in many parts of the world. “You are right to be frustrated. People of my generation haven’t done enough to deal with the cataclysmic problem you face today,” Obama said.

*In update