“President Barack Obama on Saturday praised the “strong” and historic” accord hammered out in Paris, which he said could mark “a turning point for the world” on climate change.
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French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, the host of the talks, said the pact would aim to keep the rise in global temperatures by the year 2100 “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times and “endeavour to limit” them even more, to 1.5 degrees Celsius. “We need bold action in the very near future and this does not provide that”, he said in a statement.
Sen. Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a climate change skeptic, rebuked the legitimacy of the deal Saturday.
United Nations officials and delegations from around the world concluded the deal in Paris this morning after two weeks of negotiations. Today the world gets a lifeline, a last chance to hand over to future generations a world that is more stable, a healthier planet, fairer societies and more prosperous economies.
Most Republicans oppose Obama’s unilateral actions on climate change, and many have expressed doubts that humans are responsible for warming temperatures.
Then there is is a firm commitment for countries to engage in a process on mitigation opportunities and put added focus on adaptation opportunities, with rich members working towards a clear path to outline a road map on raising the climate finance for developing countries to $100 billion annually by 2020.
The United Nations climate summit concluded with delegates adopting the Paris Agreement, the first-ever global climate deal of this magnitude.
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Under the climate accord, most of the world’s countries committed to pledging to meet targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and reporting on their progress every five years using a standardized review. Obama said that it will mean less of the carbon pollution that threatens the planet and more economic growth driven by investments in clean energy. Each pledge, it says, should represent a “progression” over the prior one, and should reflect the country’s “highest possible ambition”. “And they will look to December 12, 2015, as the day when the community of nations finally made the decision to act”, said former Vice President Al Gore, a champion of environmental activism. “The Paris agreement on climate change is a monumental success for the planet and its people”. In 1997, the COP talks resumed in the Kyoto Protocol treaty where 37 industrial nations agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent (from 1990 levels) by 2012. The suggests, though, that wealthier developing countries can also contribute such funds if they would like.
