COP26: Obama says broader political base needed for climate action

Acknowledging that US action to mitigate climate change has been constrained by the lack of a robust political majority favoring increased ambitions, former US President Barack Obama Nov. 8 emphasized at the UN Climate Conference the importance of broadening the base of political support for further steps.

Obama's comments came as the flurry of commitments unveiled in the first week of the COP26 in Glasgow were slated to be followed in the second by intensified negotiations on rules governing transparency and accountability for countries achieving their climate targets. Negotiations over rules on establishing international carbon markets remained in deadlock Nov. 8.

Obama recounted "meaningful progress," as well as obstacles to world climate goals, since the US entered the Paris climate agreement in 2016. But making a pitch for citizen activism to push governments and companies further, he said he would have been better able to fight climate change during his presidency, if he had had a "stable congressional majority that was willing and eager to take action."

Obama described Biden's pending Build Back Better legislation as a historic bill that would be "a huge plus for US action on climate change," but he also said Biden's desire to do even more is "constrained by a robust majority that's needed to make that happen.

"Both of us have been constrained in large part by the fact that one of our two major parties has decided not only to sit on the sidelines, but expressed active hostility toward climate science and made climate change a partisan issue," he said.

While Biden was able to garner support to secure passage Nov. 5 for a $1 trillion infrastructure package, his legislation, with $555 billion in climate-related funding, hinges on pulling together very narrow majority of Democratic support in the coming weeks. Relying on Democratic support only presents the specter of at least partial reversal under a possible future Republican administration.

Nonetheless, Obama expressed confidence a version of the Build Back Better plan would pass through Congress in the next few weeks.

Putin, Xi absent

Obama argued for the need to work across parties, saying it will not be enough to mobilize the converted.

"To build the broad-based coalitions necessary for bold action, we have to persuade people who either currently don't agree with us or are indifferent to the issue," he said. That means not dismissing "the guy who has to drive to his factory job every single day, can't afford a Tesla, and might not be able to pay the rent or feed his family if gas prices go up."

The former president called on young people to use their voting power more, saying "the cold hard fact is we will not have more ambitious climate plans coming out of governments, unless governments feel some pressure from voters."

Aside from noting US domestic political challenges, Obama echoed Biden's criticism of President Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia for their absences from the talks.

"Their national plans so far reflect what appears to be a dangerous lack of urgency and willingness to maintain the status quo on the part of those governments," he said.

Separately, in a press briefing Nov. 8, COP26 President Alok Sharma said his priority was to increase the pace of the talks by appointing pairs of ministers to drive progress on adaptation, on loss and damage, on finance and on "the key rulebook issues of common timeframes, Article 6 on carbon markets and transparency."

"There needs to be a sense of urgency in all our negotiations. Last week countries made commitments that will all help to protect our planet, but they must be delivered on and accounted for," Sharma said.