Cop26: Obama criticises China and Russia for ‘dangerous absence of urgency’ – day eight as it happened

The European Union’s most senior climate envoy has called on other rich countries to come up with emissions reduction plans and money to help developing nations deal with the climate emergency.

The European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans said he hoped to convince other major emitters “not just to declare a date for carbon neutrality or climate neutrality” but come forward with policies to achieve it.

Since the EU agreed its net zero goal in 2019, it has proposed a vast set of legal proposals to transform the European economy, although the measures are yet to be agreed by the EU member states and European parliament.

Timmermans said: “If we don’t make a success of this Cop, it’s difficult to see how we can reduce [in] half the emissions in less than ten years. It needs to happen right now.”

Earlier in the day, the veteran Dutch MEP Bas Eickhout sounded a note of caution on climate pledges unveiled last week, which suggested the world could restrict global heating to below 2C.

“We all have to acknowledge there is a huge difference in the value of these pledges,” he said “Some pledges are really serious, for example the EU with its Fit for 55 package. But for example the pledge of Australia is literally a brochure.”

Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister, also called on wealthy countries to close the gap in fulfilling a long-standing promise to mobilise $100bn a year to help developed countries deal with the climate crisis. “We have been doing our share as the EU … I am not complacent at all but I am just saying to the other developed countries if we can do our share I am sure you can do your share,” he said.

We all have to acknowledge there is a huge difference in the value of these pledges. Some pledges are really serious, for example the EU with its Fit for 55 package. But for example the pledge of Australia is literally a brochure.

Timmermans didn’t name names, but it’s no secret that the EU expects the United States to go far beyond Joe Biden’s recent goal to aim for an $11.4bn contribution by 2024.

But the EC vice president was also challenged on the EU’s own leadership credentials, when the Guardian’s Fiona Harvey asked him about countries such as Poland and Germany that planned to keep coal in their energy mix for some years to come.

Timmermans conceded that coal was a big challenge, but insisted the EU was making progress, citing ongoing talks in Germany to form a governing coalition that could speed up the coal phase out, as well as changes in Poland’s stance on energy.

“Things are speeding up for political reasons, for climate reasons but also simply because coal doesn’t have a future,” he said.

Survivors of the extreme weather impacts of the climate crisis have been speaking out at Cop26 on the day the summit focuses on “loss and damage” – the phrase used for the unavoidable and increasing harm from global heating.

“When the death toll reached 6,300 they stopped counting,” said Marinel Ubaido, the Philippines and a survivor of super typhoon Haiyan, which hit eight years ago today. “There are still 1,600 plus dead bodies missing.”

“Today we’re still shouting for justice for our friends and families who have lost their lives,” she said. “We are fighting for a future that is not riddled with anxiety and fear that another Haiyan might come anytime. We do not deserve to live in fear. We deserve a hopeful future. We demand urgent action.”

Many people remain in the same vulnerable places, Ubaido said, as their livelihoods are there. “I feel so tired of just fleeing and evacuating and then I don’t even know if we will have a house to go back to.”

Jo Dodds, from the small coastal town of Tarthra, in New South Wales, Australia, said 69 of its 400 homes have been destroyed by wildfires since 2018: “Since then, I have lived in fear. It’s destroying our communities, it’s killing our people.

“People talk about bushfire being a normal aspect of Australian climates, but I can tell you these are not,” she said. “There is nobody who isn’t extremely alarmed at the catastrophic heat and speed and unpredictability of these fires. We’ve had fires during the winter with snow on the hills behind us that went on for seven weeks.”

Dodds said: “Australia should be stepping up to help developing countries who are feeling the impact of climate change even more profoundly than we are. But it’s not even helping its own people.”

It’s destroying our communities, it’s killing our people.

Sven Harmeling, at the NGO Care, said loss and damage has been part of Cop discussions for at least eight years, but was not getting the serious attention it needs: “Developing countries still need to fight over whether to [even] have an agenda item or not.

“There must be clear progress on loss and damage and identifying new sources of finance,” he said. “Without that, this Cop cannot be a successful response to climate injustice. This is absolutely required to help stop this climate madness.”

Yamide Dagnet, at the World Resources Institute, said: “The ostrich policy, from developed countries who hide behind the fear of liability and compensation, has not worked and is not working.” She noted that Tuvalu and Antigua and Barbuda have said they may sue to get the money.

Lisa Plattner, at WWF-Austria said the economic impacts of global heating are estimated at $290bn to $580bn a year up to 2030. She said it was down to Alok Sharma and the UK presidency to make progress happen this week: “This is the time of the presidency.”

Barack Obama is currently addressing a very full room, opening with a cheery ‘Hello, Glasgow!’ The former US president, tieless and looking relaxed, says that he doesn’t need to attend such conferences anymore but “you will have a hard time keeping me away” when it comes to the future of the planet.

Obama says that “meaningful progress” has been made since the Paris climate accords, which he helped to strike, but acknowledges that more needs to be done.

“What is also true, collectively and individually we are still falling short,” he says. “We have not done nearly enough to address this crisis, we will need to do more.”

Obama admits that “some progress stalled” when Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Paris deal. “I wasn’t real happy about that,” he adds, but says the “US is back” under Joe Biden’s leadership.

He also believes that, despite opposition within the Democratic party, some version of Biden’s ambitious $555bn climate package will pass in Congress in the coming weeks. “It will set the United States on course to meet its new climate targets,” he says.

In 2015, rapport between Obama administration negotiators and their Chinese counterparts was seen as paving the way to the global Paris accord.

Obama criticised Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin for not joining other global leaders at the climate talks in Glasgow, saying he found it “particularly disappointing” that their leaders haven’t shown up to Cop26.

He blames the pandemic and the rise of nationalism for a breakdown in international relations that has affected dealing with the climate crisis. He also has a dig at Republicans back home for showing “active hostility” to climate science.”

“One thing should transcend day to day politics and geopolitics and that’s climate change,” Obama says. “The world has to step up and it has to step up now.”

The 44th US president admits that sometimes he feels “bleak” about the future of humanity and that “images of dystopia start creeping into my dreams”. But he called on leaders and activists not to give in to cynicism and praised the work of young climate campaigners, which provokes the first round of applause during his speech.