5°C French foreign minister and President of the COP21 Laurent Fabius, right, and France's Laurence Tubiana. It does not require them to do so. The agreement struck a middle ground, removing a strict firewall between rich and poor nations and saying that expectations on countries to take climate action should grow as their capabilities evolve. The last climate summit, in Copenhagen in 2009, ended in failure when countries couldn’t agree on a binding emissions pact. However, a footnote specifies that it “does not involve or provide any basis for any liability or compensation” — a key US demand because it would let the Obama administration sign on to the deal without going through the Republican-led Senate.
The accord is a breakthrough in climate negotiations.The deal commits countries to keeping the rise in global temperatures by the year 2100 compared with pre-industrial times “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and says they will “endeavour to limit” them even more, to 1..It says wealthy nations should continue to provide financial support for poor nations to cope with climate change and encourages other countries to pitch in on a voluntary basis. The UN has been working for more than two decades to persuade governments to work together to reduce the man-made emissions that scientists say are warming the planet.5-degree goal. “It’s a whole lot of pomp, given the circumstances.The “Paris agreement” aims to keep global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius between now and 2100, a key demand of poor countries ravaged by rising sea levels and other effects of climate change.”The agreement sets a goal of getting global greenhouse gas emissions to start falling “as soon as possible”; they have been generally rising since the industrial revolution. But those pledges are not enough to achieve the goals in the accord, meaning countries will need to cut much more to meet the goal.
The main dispute centred over how to anchor the climate targets in a binding international pact, with India, China and other major developing countries insisting on different rules for rich and poor nations. It is the first pact to ask all countries to join the fight against global warming, representing a sea change in UN talks that previously required only wealthy nations to reduce their emissions. (Photo: AP) 195 nations adopt accord that aims to limit warming to 1.The deal now needs to be ratified by individual governments — at least 55 countries representing at least 55 per cent of global emissions — and would take effect in 2020.In what would be a victory for small island nations, the agreement includes a section highlighting the losses they expect to incur from climate-related disasters that it’s too late to adapt to.Loud applause erupted in the conference hall after French foreign minister Laurent Fabius gavelled the agreement.More than 180 countries have already presented plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions — a breakthrough in itself after years of stalemate. “Almost every country in the wholesale butterfly plugs world just signed on to the #ParisAgreement on climate change — thanks to American leadership.
The world has already warmed by about 1 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times.5 degrees Celsius. The Paris climate accord is adopted,” Mr Fabius said. Some delegates wept and others embraced.The previous emissions treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, included only rich countries and the US never signed on.195 nations adopt accord that aims to limit warming to 1.5°CNearly 200 nations adopted the first global pact to fight climate change on Saturday, calling on the world to collectively cut and then eliminate greenhouse gas pollution but imposing no sanctions on countries that don’t.“This is huge,” tweeted US President Barack Obama.”In the pact, the countries commit to limiting the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100.In practical terms, achieving that goal means the world would have to stop emitting greenhouse gases altogether in the next half-century, scientists said.French President François Hollande called Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an apparent bid to persuade India to go with the deal. That reflects Western attempts to expand the donor base to include advanced developing countries such as China.
That’s because the less we pollute, the less pollution nature absorbs.The talks were initially scheduled to end Friday but ran over as Western powers, tiny Pacific island nations and everyone in between haggled over wording.The adoption of the agreement was held up for nearly two hours as the United States tried — successfully in the end — to change the wording on emissions targets. The draft agreement had said developed countries, like India and China, “shall” commit to reducing emissions; in adopting the pact organisers changed the language to say those countries “should” make that commitment.“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.The agreement,
South African environment minister Edna Molewa said, “can map a turning point to a better and safer world”.Some scientists who had criticised earlier drafts of the pact as unrealistic praised the final language for including language that essentially means the world will have to all but stop polluting with greenhouse gases by 2070 to reach the 2-degree goal, or by 2050 to reach the 1.“I see the room, I see the reaction is positive, I hear no objection.Achieving such a reduction in emissions would involve a complete transformation of how people get energy, and many activists worry that despite the pledges, countries are not ready to make such profound and costly changes