Obama makes impassioned plea for clean energy in Argentina

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Former US President Barack Obama made an impassioned plea on Friday for the world to embrace clean energy and overcome climate change at a gathering of experts in Argentina.

Obama told an audience of government ministers, business leaders and young environmental activists that they were part of a generation with the scientific means and imagination to begin to repair the planet.

"This is no longer speculation, this is no longer an issue that we can put off, this is firmly in the present."

"If we take advantage of this critical time, we have the chance to slow and even stop a trend that could be disastrous," said Obama, who signed the Paris climate agreement that President Donald Trump has controversially signaled his intention to abandon.

"We cannot condemn our children and their children to a future they cannot repair," said Obama.

"We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change but we're also the last generation that can do something about it."

Despite pulling out of the Paris deal, he said, "the good news is that the United States will hit its targets despite a different approach by the incoming administration.

"Because so much of what we did is now embedded in our economy and in our culture, because our states and cities, our universities, our largest companies, have made it clear that they will keep pushing forward for the sake of future generations."

But Obama also warned the Paris accord would not solve the climate crisis on its own, and that as technology evolved, more ambitious targets would have to be set.

The two-day Green Economy conference in the central city of Cordoba heard from experts, including Nobel economic laureate Edmund Phelps, that the global fight for clean energy rests with businesses and ordinary people because governments were lagging behind.

Edmund Phelps, American economist and the winner of the 2006 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. /Reuters Photo

Obama kept with the theme, saying young people in particular "understand this is not just a job for politicians."

"We've got to educate our friends, our families, our colleagues, and describe what's at stake. And we need to speak up in town halls, and in churches. We need to push back against those who would try to spread misinformation, and deny science."

Although the internet was providing more access to knowledge than ever before, he said, "if you watch Fox News you probably don't believe climate change is such a problem."

"If we can look beyond the daily news cycle and think about the basics, the air that our children breathe, if that is our focus and we're willing to put that above any short term interests then it won't be too late."

He highlighted how the ocean was rising to threaten Miami, one of the largest cities in the US.

"It's very hard to build a dam around Miami because the water is coming up through the ground. It's porous, that's the reason why even on a sunny day there are parts of Miami now where you'll see a foot of water running down the street."

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Source(s): AFP