'Moral call to rest of the world' on climate from hardest hit countries, Obama says

Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during an Obama Foundation event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 13, 2019. REUTERS/Lim Huey Teng

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Island nations and poor coastal countries facing the severest effects of climate change offer a "moral call to the rest of the world" to act now, former U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday.

"For those of you who are... experiencing the effects of it right now, there may be some hard questions in terms of adaptation versus mitigation," Obama said at a youth leaders conference in Malaysia's capital city of Kuala Lumpur, organised by the Obama Foundation.