US President Joe Biden has criticised the leaders of China and Russia for not turning up to the COP26 climate summit

The President in a speech on Tuesday night stated that climate change was “a gigantic issue” and China “walked away” – adding it was the “same thing with Russia and the country’s President Putin”.

Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Chinese leader Xi Jinping are attending the summit in Glasgow, where leaders of 200 nations are currently attending.

Both countries however have sent delegations to the talks, which are due to run for two weeks until 14 November.

China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, followed by the US

Russia is the fifth largest emitter after the EU and India. Many nations have already announced major deals, including a global pledge to slash methane levels by 2030 as well as to end and reverse deforestation by the same year.

While both China and Russia are signatories of the pledge to reverse deforestation, their failures to attend the meeting in Scotland have been highly criticised.

Prior to Biden’s speech, Russia’s Putin virtually addressed a meeting on forest management at the COP26, stating that his country takes the “strongest and most vigorous measures to conserve” woodlands, according to a Kremlin press release.

The US president made his comments when asked about the role that other countries – including China, Russia and Saudi Arabia – have played in talks so far

Biden stated the same about Mr Putin, saying that Russia’s wilderness was burning and their president “stays mum” about the issue.

Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave no reason why the Russian leader would not attend when they announced the decision in October, although he said climate change was an “important” priority for Russia.

Net zero – otherwise known as becoming carbon neutral, means not adding to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.