Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader, said climate change poses one of the greatest threats the world has ever known, and that no country acting alone can stem the tide.
Advertisement
Ministers from more than 190 countries have been engaged in “shuttle diplomacy” and diplomatic wrangling to find common ground for the agreement, which aims to limit global temperature rises to avoid risky climate change.
Negotiators from around the world appear to be closing in on a landmark accord to slow global warming, with a possible final draft to be presented Saturday for a last round of debate at talks outside Paris.
A fact sheet released by the White House – the administration’s first statement since the announcement – said the “ambitious” and “transparent” agreement establishes a “long term, durable global framework to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions”.
The mechanism to help address the damage that poorer, less developed countries might suffer as a result of climate change came with a proviso it did not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation.
Some delegates started crying, others embraced as French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius gaveled the agreement at midnight Indian time.
“I believe this moment can be a turning point for the world”, Obama said.
This language recognizes the scientific conclusions that an increase in atmospheric temperatures of more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, would lock the planet into a future of catastrophic impacts, including rising sea levels, more devastating floods and droughts, widespread food and water shortages and more powerful storm.
“We have today reassured this future generation that we all together will mitigate the challenge posed by climate change and will give them a better Earth”.
But a Chinese representative said the deal should have different rules for different countries, calling the demand “quite legitimate” if some populations want to maintain a certain lifestyle. “For that we need all hands on deck”, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday after diplomats agreed on a final draft on climate change. Many climate scientists say that a 2 degree threshold-which was a number being focused on by some governments in the run-up to the conference-is too high, so this acknowledgement of 1.5 degrees is important.
Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the differentiation between developed and developing countries, which India has been demanding, is mentioned across all the pillars of action including mitigation, adaptation, finance and access to technology.
It’s the world’s first comprehensive climate agreement, with all countries expected to pitch in.
The talks were initially scheduled to end Friday. Only rich countries were involved in the 1997 Kyoto Protocal – a deal that the United States never accepted.
French President Francois Hollande also encouraged delegates to endorse the text, an act he said would represent a “major act for humanity”.
Developing countries, including China and India, had pushed for two separate accounting systems – a more stringent one for rich countries, a more lenient one for poor countries.
Advertisement
Like global warming itself, success at the historic Paris climate talks was always going to be incremental.
