Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate 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.
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Countries are also committed to “encourage the coordination of support from, inter alia, public and private, bilateral and multilateral sources, such as the Green Climate Fund, and alternative sources in accordance with relevant decisions by the conference of the parties”.
“For nine years, I have spoken repeatedly with almost every world leader about how the growing human imprint on the planet threatens our lives, our economies, our security and our survival”.
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris has reached a final agreement to attempt to curb global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
We are not out of the woods yet, but we are probably heading in the right direction – and it would be right at this point to put in a good word for that much maligned organisation, the United Nations.
But it was widely – if cautiously in some quarters – welcomed by businesses, campaigners, scientists and analysts. The deal will have countries coming back to the table, where they will have to show the world how they are increasing their ambition to meet that target.
The Paris Agreement also differentiates between countries as to their responsibilities for action and provides finance for poor countries to deal with rising temperatures, both key asks for developing nations. “It’s a moment to remember and a huge step forward in helping to secure the future of our planet”.
The long-term objective of the agreement is to make sure global warming stays “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and to “pursue efforts” to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
United Nations climate envoy Janos Pasztor described the deal as a “monumental achievement” and said it sends a message to the financial markets that it’s time to invest in low-carbon energy.
The two-degree threshold is one at which experts hope we can avoid risky climate change. Kevin Anderson, deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for climate change research in Manchester, UK, strongly criticised the absence of aviation and shipping from the text of the agreement, saying that the proposed text was weaker than the ill-fated Copenhagen accord of 2009, which failed to garner binding agreement from the negotiating parties. “For the first time, we have a truly universal agreement on climate change, one of the most crucial problems on earth”. That doesn’t require governments to deepen their cuts.
– US negotiators led the charge to keep some parts of the agreement from being legally binding. But the Paris agreement is more holistic as each of the participating country has submitted their action plan to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “The world has come together around an agreement that will empower us to chart a new path for our planet, a smart and responsible path, a sustainable path”.
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He, like many others, paid tribute to the French, who are credited with delivering a master-class in diplomacy in steering the deal through tense and hard negotiations to achieve agreement.
