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Climate deal is ‘best chance to save planet’ – Obama
However the Paris Agreement doesn’t quantify this commitment but nevertheless states that developed countries shall provide financial resources to assist developing countries with respect to both mitigation and adaptation in continuation of their existing obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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Though the groundbreaking Paris Agreement on climate change was hailed as a milestone in the battle to keep Earth hospitable to human life, some critics say it is short on specifics, such as how the plan will be enforced or how improvements will be measured. Delegates hugged one another, and some broke into tears. Today, we can look into the eyes of our children and grandchildren, and we can finally say, tell them that we have joined hands to bequeath a more habitable world to them and to future generations.
The agreement seeks to revolutionise the way energy is used around the world by cutting back or even eliminating coal and other fossil fuels, replacing them renewable sources such as wind or solar power. “We are nature that defends itself”. The first “stocktake” would occur in 2023, with further reviews every five years to steadily increase or “ratchet up” those measures.
“This is truly a historic moment”, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in an interview. “The Paris Agreement is a victory for people, for the common good, and for multilateralism”. It limits average global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures and strives for a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) if possible.
In a win for vulnerable low-lying nations who had portrayed the summit as the last chance to avoid the existential threat of rising seas, nations would “pursue efforts” to limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as they had hoped.
Once implemented, this would bring down greenhouse gas emissions to net zero within a few decades. But those pledges are not enough to achieve the goals in the accord, meaning countries will need to cut much more to meet the goal.
“We have saved Tuvalu, and in doing so we have saved the world”, Tuvalu negotiator Ian Fry said.
“Even if all the initial targets set in Paris are met, we’ll only be part of the way there when it comes to reducing carbon from the atmosphere”, Obama added.
The ink had not yet dried on the climate change agreement signed in Paris this weekend when complaints poured in from every direction, including from environmentalists who assailed the accord backed by President Obama for being nothing but empty promises.
When the costs of the green technology are low enough for developing countries to adopt them, they will do so without much prompting. That would have forced U.S. President Barack Obama to submit the final deal to the Senate, where the Republican majority had promised to kill it. Instead of protracted negotiations, [French Foreign Minister Laurent] Fabius treated the language as a typo, pushed through a quick amendment to the text.
The deal involved nearly two weeks of tough negotiations between bureaucrats and ministers from around the world, French and United Nations officials.
He added that “now the US needs to do what it does best-lead with action”.
Nicaragua said it would not support the pact.
This agreement will have far-reaching effects, and transform our economies in unprecedented ways that help to protect the planet and its people.
Pope Francis is encouraging concerted efforts by all so that the climate pact reached in Paris can be put into action.
“The problem’s not solved because of this accord”, said Obama.
Another sticking point has been coming up with a way to punish nations that don’t do their part, but observers say that was never really on the table. “This deal alone won’t dig us out the hole we’re in, but it makes the sides less steep”. It has been signed by 197 countries including New Zealand.
New coalitions away from the binary developed/developing modelThe second week of the climate talks saw the surprise emergence of the Coalition of High-Ambition grouping of more than 100 countries.
“The whole idea of reaching this long-term goal is to progressively ratchet up each country’s response and the New Zealand Government of 2020 will have that on their plate”. It does not require them to do so.
“And do we see global emissions of greenhouse gases peaking very soon – if not already – and then starting on the way down”. Forests, oceans and soil now absorb about half the world’s man-made carbon dioxide emissions.
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But in the meantime, he said, the Government did not need to change any policies as a result of the agreement.