Obama says world “met the moment” in global warming pact

The world will strive to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-Industrial Revolution levels, and aim for 1.5 deg C if possible.

Attorney General Ken Paxton already is suing over Obama’s ambitious Clear Power Plan, which seeks to combat global warming by requiring the nation’s existing power plants to slash their carbon emissions.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who’s also seeking a 2016 Democratic White House bid, took to Twitter to laud the climate change agreement.

“Even if all the initial targets set in Paris are met, we’ll only be part of the way there when it comes to reducing carbon from the atmosphere”, Obama said adding that the agreement is still ambitious, with every nation committing to their own specific targets”.

“We did not get all we wanted in the language we preferred but the Paris Agreement still includes the main positions we had put forward in the Suva Declaration on Climate Change and also manages to work in favour of the island nations”, he said.

US President Barack Obama took to Twitter in the wake of the deal, saying “This is huge”.

Developed countries “shall provide” funding to help developing countries make the costly shift to green energy and shore up their defences against climate change impacts like drought and storms.

“The agreement is a third milestone document reached in the past 25 years by all countries’ effort in negotiating on climate change”.

Ebtekar voiced her expectation that the situation of those countries which have suffered the most from climate change, such as Iran, and the adverse effects of war and unrest left on the region, have been fully considered in the Climate Agreement. “Developing country parties should continue enhancing their mitigation efforts, and are encouraged to move over time towards economy-wide emission reduction or limitation targets in the light of different national circumstances”.

United Nations officials and delegations from around the world concluded the deal in Paris this morning after two weeks of negotiations.

Obama portrayed the hard-won deal as a product of American leadership.

“This has to happen”, he said of the agreement.

But Nick Dearden, director of campaign group Global Justice Now, said: “It’s outrageous that the deal that’s on the table is being spun as a success when it undermines the rights of the world’s most vulnerable communities and has nearly nothing binding to ensure a safe and liveable climate for future generations”.

However, it sets out procedures for review at regular intervals to increase emissions cuts, with countries aiming to peak global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, and then rapidly scale down in the second half of this century.

-$100bn a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020, with a commitment to further finance in the future.

The burning of those fossil fuels releases invisible greenhouse gases, which cause the planet to warm and change Earth’s delicate climate system.

-TRANSPARENCY: There is no penalty for countries that miss their emissions targets.