“This Agreement sends a strong signal to the private sector that the global economy is moving towards clean energy, and that through innovation and ingenuity, we can achieve our climate objectives while creating new jobs, raising standards of living and lifting millions out of poverty”.
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“Together we’ve shown what’s possible when the world stands as one”, he said, also hailing the so-called Paris agreement as a “tribute to American leadership”.
Obama said the agreement is not ideal, but sets a framework that will contain periodic reviews and assessments to ensure that countries meet their commitments to curb carbon emissions. “We met the moment”, Obama said in a rare Saturday address.
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.
The deal – to take effect from 2020 – ends years of disagreement between rich and poor nations over how to carry out what will be a multi-trillion-dollar effort to slow down global warming and deal with its consequences already occurring around the planet.
“The agreement is a huge and historic step forward”, Mr Groser said in a statement, adding that it is the first truly global agreement on climate change. Only developed countries are expected to slash their emissions in absolute terms; developing nations are “encouraged” to do so as their capabilities evolve over time.
Above all, we have given future generations hope instead of doom and gloom.
For now, it appears parties are leaning toward mostly an honor system agreement, with individual countries making pledges that won’t necessarily be enforced by any world court or body.
“Of course if we’re being ambitious over time we will need to work even harder (than the current targets)”, she told reporters in Paris after the deal was signed.
The agreement requires each country to set its own goals for greenhouse gas reduction, and to ratchet up those commitments every five years.
French Foreign Affairs Minister and President-designate of COP21 Laurent Fabius gestures after adoption of a historic global warming pact at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015.
Any federal policies that result from the agreement are likely to have big implications for Texas – the nation’s No. 1 energy producer – and also to face big pushback from state leaders.
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Obama traveled to the Paris conference two weeks ago and was one of several world leaders to deliver a speech in the opening session.
