Paris climate talks: The poorest countries are putting the richest to shame | Kumi Naidoo

Countries like the Philippines, Kiribati and Morocco are showing true leadership and leaving major polluters behind

There were never more global leaders under one roof than here in Paris at the global climate negotiations on Monday. And they all talked about leadership, about fixing climate change, about not leaving an uninhabitable planet for our children. Many spoke powerful words. The French president, Franiois Hollande, rightly called coal, oil and gas the energies of the past (he forgot nuclear). And many talked about how renewables are the future.

When Greenpeace started talking about the "carbon budget" that humanity must not exceed, governments were still in denial about the need to keep fossil fuels in the ground. This year Barack Obama justified rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline with the fact that we cannot burn all fossil fuels we've already found, let alone new sources.