The “Paris Agreement”, as it’s being called, is created to prevent temperatures from getting any hotter than they already are – specifically, to keep the global temperature from rising one more degree Celsius (or 1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and the year 2100, the AP reports.
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Hillary Clinton quickly lauded Saturday’s agreement of a global climate change pact in Paris, calling it an important step in protecting the planet, though her foremost challenger, Bernie Sanders, said he was unimpressed by the deal.
Earlier they granted conference president and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius a standing ovation as he announced the text.
The agreement requires each country to set its own goals for greenhouse gas reduction, and to ratchet up those commitments every five years.
“What was once unthinkable has become unstoppable”, he added.
The pact limiting greenhouse gas emissions provides the world with a road map for breaking away from fossil fuels that have powered the global economy since the Industrial Revolution. Wealthy nations will work to support poorer ones in decreasing their carbon emissions relative to their technological and economic abilities. Developing nations which still need to burn coal and oil to power growing populations, are encouraged to enhance their efforts and “move over time” to cuts.
Countries submitted their individual plans to slash targets before arriving in Paris, which took them off the table during the two weeks of negotiations.
After the decision in Paris, the countries that adopt the agreement will later have to ratify it nationally.
Internationally, Obama cited the joint climate change announcement with China made during his visit to Beijing in November 2014.
In what would be a victory for small island nations, the draft includes a section highlighting the losses they expect to incur from climate-related disasters that it’s too late to adapt to.
“This has to happen”, he said of the agreement.
That’s because when emissions fall, nature compensates by absorbing less carbon dioxide – and can even release old pollution once there’s less of it in the air, said Princeton University’s Michael Oppenheimer.
By the second half of this century, there must be a balance between the emissions from human activity such as energy production and farming, and the amount that can be captured by carbon-absorbing “sinks” such as forests or carbon storage technology.
This accord is the first time all countries are expected to pitch in – the previous emissions treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, only included rich countries and the USA never signed on. He challenged all nations to do more.
Activists hold a giant red banner during a demonstration near the Arc de Triomphe at the Avenue de la Grande armee boulevard in Paris on December 12, 2015.
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More than 150 heads of states and governments had assembled in Paris on the opening day of the conference on November 30 to give their political backing to the negotiating process. “I believe this will continue because I just personally can not believe that any person who doesn’t understand the science and isn’t prepared to do for the next generation what we did here today and follow through on it can not and will not be elected president of the United States”.
