BARACK OBAMA was accused of failing to deliver on his promises of climate finance for the global South yesterday, on the day that he addressed the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.

But the former United States president said his country had met its obligations under the Paris Agreement despite the tenure of his successor Donald Trump in the White House. 

“Despite four years of active hostility towards climate science coming from the very top of our federal government, the American people managed to still meet our original commitment under the Paris Agreement,” he said.

“And not only that, the rest of the world stayed in the deal.”

Ahead of his arrival, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate accused Mr Obama of failing to make good on his climate pledges when he was president. 

In 2009, the US promised to back the $100 billion (£74bn) a year fund for poor nations to tackle climate change by 2020 and despite pledging $3bn to the fund in 2014, he delivered just $1bn (£741 million) before leaving office. 

Ms Nakate, who has become a youth icon for climate justice alongside Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, said that the US’s broken promise “will cost lives in Africa.” 

“Earth’s richest country does not contribute enough to life-saving funds,” she wrote on social media, adding that Mr Obama should meet Cop26 youth.

Climate justice activist Alexandria Villasenor criticised the exclusion of young people from the conference, saying that while Mr Obama had a message for the youth, they would not be able to attend it. 

The former president admitted that “folks in [his] generation” had not done enough to tackle the potentially cataclysmic problem the youth now stand to inherit, adding that young people have a right to be frustrated.