Obama challenges global warming sceptics

Barack Obama has compared action to cut carbon emissions to the space race (AP)

US President Barack Obama has criticised climate change deniers in Congress while challenging young people to change the “status quo” on global warming, during an address on Saturday to the graduating class of the University of California, Irvine.

Speaking to an audience of more than 30,000, including 8,000 students, Mr Obama invoked the memory of an earlier President.

“When President Kennedy set us on a course for the Moon, there were a number of people who made a serious case that it would be too expensive, that it would take too long,” he said.

“But nobody ignored the science. I don’t remember anyone saying the Moon wasn’t there, or that it was made of cheese.”

Referring to politicians who refuse to tackle climate change, he said: “There are some who duck the question by saying, ‘Hey, I’m not a scientist.’ Let me translate that for you. What that means is: ‘I accept that man-made climate change is real, but if I admit it, I’ll be run out of town by a radical fringe that thinks climate science is a liberal plot’.”