Actor James Cromwell bashes world leaders for absence at UN nature summit

Actor James Cromwell speaks at a press conference during the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on Dec 14, 2022. Photo: AFP

A high-stakes UN summit in Canada seen as vital to saving the world's biodiversity has failed to attract a single world leader beyond the host country's prime minister Justin Trudeau.

It was left therefore to actor James Cromwell, a man who has played a US president four times on screen, to lend the event some star power and try to inject a sense of urgency into talks.