British naturalist David Attenborough, speaking ahead of the United Nations COP26 climate conferences, warned world leaders it would be too late to tackle climate change if the U.N. climate summit does not succeed, and said richer nations had a moral responsibility to act. Britain has cast the COP26 climate conference, which begins in Glasgow on Oct. 31, as the last big chance to slow rising temperatures, and hopes to persuade leaders to adopt tougher climate targets. Attenborough, 95, said it would be "really catastrophic" if richer nations failed to support poorer ones, and time was running out. He said that leading nations had a duty to help poorer countries because industrialization had been one of the major factors in driving climate change. "Every day that goes by in which we don't do something about it is a day wasted," he said. "If we don't act now, it'll be too late." The U.N. said that greenhouse gas concentrations had hit a record last year and the world was off track in capping rising temperatures. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was uncertain as to whether COP26 would succeed in securing the requirements needed to limit the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
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