But as much as Obama is expected to express regret for former President Donald Trump’s “four years of active hostility towards climate science” and the climate denialism which defines the modern Republican Party, he’ll express a deeper, broader worry that politics all over the world is falling short of what needs to be done to save the planet.
“I recognize that we’re living in a moment when international cooperation has atrophied—in part because of the pandemic, in part because of the rise of nationalism and tribal impulses around the world, in part because of a lack of leadership on America’s part for four years on a host of multilateral issues,” Obama will say according to a copy of the prepared remarks obtained exclusively first by CNN.
Obama’s speech comes a week after President Joe Biden’s own appearance at the conference, in an appearance during which he explicitly apologized for Trump’s abandonment of the Paris climate accords. And it comes amid major international doubts that Biden, Congress or America is actually serious about climate change, no matter what Obama says.
Pleading that climate change should be the one issue which transcends politics, Obama will say he has his own doubts this is possible which he tries to fight back.
“As I’m sure is true for all of you, there are times when I feel discouraged, when the future seems bleak, and I am doubtful that humanity can get its act together before it’s too late,” Obama is expected to say. “And yet, whenever I feel such despondency, I remind myself that cynicism is the recourse of cowards. We can’t afford hopelessness.”
Obama’s appearance at an international conference is already an unusual move for a former president, as is his public criticism of “my successor” — the closest it seems Obama will come to saying Trump’s name. Also unusual is his criticism of current foreign leaders, as he’s expected to call out Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin for skipping the COP 26 entirely. He’ll call that decision “particularly discouraging,” adding “their national plans reflect what appears to be a dangerous absence of urgency, a willingness to maintain the status quo, on the part of both those countries.”
Addressing the younger people in the audience, Obama is expected to say, “you’re right to be frustrated.”
“For most of your lives, you’ve been bombarded with warnings about what the future will look like if we don’t address the climate crisis,” Obama will say. “And you’ve grown up watching many of the adults who are in a position to do something about it either act like the problem doesn’t exist or refuse to make the hard decisions necessary to address it.”
Picking up on a theme he has repeatedly hit on the campaign trail back home, Obama will plead, particularly with young people, not to give up on politics. “Vote like your life depends on it,” he’ll say, since “the cold, hard fact is that we will not have more ambitious climate change plans unless governments get behind them.”
Obama will warn, though, that young people need to rethink their approach. He’ll pick up on another theme he’s expressed before that today’s youth mistakes online activism and insular virtue signaling for making a difference. “Protests are necessary. Hashtag campaigns can spread awareness. But to build the broad-based coalitions necessary for bold action, we will have to persuade people who either don’t currently agree with us or are simply indifferent,” Obama will say. “To change those folks, we can’t just yell at them, or tweet at them, or inconvenience them by blocking traffic through protests. We’re going to have to listen to the objections and reluctance of ordinary people, understand their realities, and work with them so that serious action on climate change doesn’t impact their lives adversely.”
Obama is expected to press the point that local governments and many privates businesses stayed committed to hitting the Paris accord targets, despite Trump’s withdrawal of the federal government. They should believe in Biden’s commitment now, he’ll add, and say he has faith a larger Build Back Better plan with more extensive climate measures will soon pass Congress, despite the hold-ups in Washington last week which led to a vote on only one of the infrastructure bills.
Nonetheless, Obama will praise the “meaningful progress” made by world leaders through the agreements reached last week in Scotland—such as those to combat methane emissions and deforestation, as well as those signed by two dozen countries not including the United States to end public subsidies for fossil fuels and pledging to end the use of coal completely.
While in Scotland, Obama will also meet with several groups of climates leaders, as well as business and philanthropic leaders, and local elected officials. He’ll be introduced by an Obama Foundation leader who is a Northern Mariana Islands representative, and spend time with several others during the trip.
Notably, the climate summit is taking place five years after the Paris Agreement took effect. In 2015, after the COP21, more than 190 countries signed onto the agreement at the time to limit the increase in global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but preferably to 1.5 degrees.
Biden reentered the Paris Agreement after former Trump pulled the United States out of it, and apologized to his fellow world leaders in remarks on the first day of COP26.
“I guess I shouldn’t apologize, but I do apologize for the fact that the United States — the last administration — pulled out of the Paris Accords and put us sort of behind the 8-ball,” the President said last week in Glasgow.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.