GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) – Barack Obama expressed confidence at U.N. climate talks Monday that the Biden administration will ultimately get its $555 billion climate package through Congress, and faulted U.S. rivals China and Russia for what he called a “dangerous lack of urgency” in cutting their own climate-wrecking emissions.
“When it comes to climate, time really is running out,” Obama told climate advocates. Though there has been progress since the historic 2015 Paris climate agreement “we are nowhere near where we need to be.”
His comments came as conference leaders acknowledged Monday that many key sticking points exist after a week of talks. A trust gap between rich and poor nations on climate change issues emerged when the negotiations went through a check of what’s been accomplished and what’s left to be done. Developing countries used versions of the word “disappointing” five times when leaders talked Monday about the progress to date.
The U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, is the former American president’s first since he helped deliver the triumph of the 2015 Paris climate accord, when nations committed to cutting fossil fuel and agricultural emissions fast enough to keep the Earth’s warming below catastrophic levels of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
That celebration has faded and been replaced by worry. Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris accord. President Joe Biden put America back in the climate deal as soon as he took office this year but the Trump move set back U.S. efforts at fighting climate change for years.