“The Paris climate accord is adopted”, Fabius declared, officially ending the summit with a knock of a little green hammer.
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They described the climate accord as having a “hybrid” legal structure that allowed for the broadest global participation possible, since a completely, legally binding agreement would pose domestic political challenges for many countries, including the United States.
Without urgent action, they warned, mankind faced increasingly severe droughts, floods and storms, and rising seas that would engulf islands and coastal areas populated by hundreds of millions of people.
President Obama said the climate agreement reached in Paris by the United States and almost 200 nations Saturday offers “the best chance to save the one planet we have”.
Delegates from 195 nations have reached an unprecedented agreement on global climate change in the French capital of Paris after years of often fruitless negotiations for a legally binding deal to limit carbon emissions.
“We’ve agreed to what we ought to be doing, but no one yet has agreed to go do it”, said Dennis Clare, a negotiator for the Federated States of Micronesia.
Retooling energy production from dirty coal, oil and gas to renewable like solar and wind will require investment. Some nations are also aggressively pursuing nuclear power, which does not emit greenhouse gases.
The agreement includes a commitment to keep the rise in global temperatures “well below” 2 C compared to pre-industrial times, while striving to limit them even more, to 1.5 degrees.
Recent months have gone down in history as some of the warmest months on record around the world, according to NOAA. “We have today reassured these future generations that we will all together give them a better Earth”.
However, all of the emissions cuts promised by countries thus far won’t come anywhere close to meeting those goals.
India’s Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar expressed happiness that the text addressed the concerns raised by India in all areas – mitigation of carbon emissions, adaptation to climate change, financing, technology development and transfer, capacity building and transparency.
Mr Groser said the significance of 185 countries making emissions reduction pledges over the course of the year could not be understated.
Rich countries are required to meet their $100 billion per year pledge by 2020 to help poorer countries to deal with climate change and to boost funding after that year to a yet-to-be-specified amount.
Ahead of the talks, most nations submitted voluntary plans to curb greenhouse-gas emissions from 2020, a process billed as an important platform for success.
The agreement also says that each country should strive to drive down their carbon output “as soon as possible”.
It also rules out compensating countries affected by climate change.
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China agreed the deal was not ideal but said that would not prevent the country from marching forward with historic steps.
