Glasgow COP26: Republicans, China, Russia hurt progress, says Obama

Obama said the Paris agreement he helped to broker had created a framework to tackle climate change

Former US President Barack Obama lambasted those who would play politics to avoid acting on climate change, calling out Russia and China in the same breath as Republican politicians back home.

"It was particularly discouraging to see the leaders of two of the world's largest emitters, China and Russia, declined to even attend the proceedings" in Glasgow, Obama said.

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, and that's a shame." The Democratic former president, speaking on the main stage at the