President Obama Says World ‘Met the Moment’ in Global Warming Pact

The plan requires countries to keeping the rise in the global average temperature “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and “endeavor to limit” them even more, to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the year 2100, compared with pre-industrial levels.

“It is true that the agreement is not ideal and there are some areas that are in need of improvement”, said Xie Zhenhua, China’s Special Envoy on Climate Change.

“This is a pivotal moment where nations stepped across political fault lines to collectively face down climate change”, said Lou Leonard, vice president of climate change for the World Wildlife Fund. “For decades, we have heard that large developing nations don’t care about climate change and aren’t acting fast enough”. “Over the past seven years”, Obama said, “we’ve transformed the United States into the global leader in fighting climate change”.

■ Emissions targets: In order to reach the long-term goal, countries agreed to set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions every five years.

“However, this does not prevent us from marching historical steps forward”, he said.

From 30 November to 12 December, Paris hosted the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 11).

A deal on tackling climate change has been brokered in Paris after nearly 200 nations agreed to curb carbon emissions and combat global warming. After that, rapid reductions need to be taken.

“We can not afford to be slowed by the climate skeptics or deterred by the defeatists who doubt America’s ability to meet this challenge”, the former first lady stressed.

THE Paris Agreement that was concluded over the weekend to cheers, relief and tears made history for bringing together 195 nations big and small, poor and rich, for the first time to fight global warming.

President Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action nonprofit praised the agreement on Twitter, calling it “huge”.

“The language in the text is a triumph of French diplomacy and contains some deliberate ambiguous language needed to reach agreement”, she said.

It also promises financial support to poorer nations, to help them adapt to the damage that will be caused by the climate changes that are already happening. “The Paris climate accord is adopted”, Fabius declared, AFP reported.

“That is going to be an enormous transformation of our economy and all to the better because it will reduce our dependency on foreign fuel, it will increase our security, it will provide for our environment, cleaner air, healthier, healthier people”, he said.

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.

The agreement says all countries must report on their emissions and their efforts the reduce them.