John Kerry, secretary of state, defends Paris climate change deal by citing

On Saturday, representatives from 198 countries approved a plan to prevent increased global warming by cutting greenhouse gas emissions globally. On the other, it redoubles a previous commitment from developed countries to mobilize $100 billion a year from 2020 to help poorer nations cope with climate change.

“The governments did not create a climate change police force”, he said. Speaking from the White House Saturday, United States president Barack Obama praised the pact, citing its potential as “a turning point for the world”. In this follow-up to our preliminary coverage of the final deal, we’ll look more closely at the terms of the agreement and what the deal will mean for the world in the coming years.

“We want to explain now why we are not able to support the consensus”, said Paul Oquist, representing Nicaragua and the “Alba” bloc of Central and South American countries.

Union Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar said that he would make a statement on India’s role in Paris Agreement in the parliament on Wednesday.

Temperatures should not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius. Olai Uludong, climate change ambassador for the tiny island state of Palau – which faces a very real threat of disappearing under the rising Pacific waves – said: “Our head is above water”.

“The Paris Agreement is a victory for people, for the common good, and for multilateralism”.

At the opening ceremony of the Paris climate summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China would adopt new policy measures to improve the industrial mix, build a low-carbon system, develop green building and low-carbon transportation, and establish a nationwide carbon-emission trading market. This language recognizes the scientific conclusions that an increase in atmospheric temperatures of more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, would lock the planet into a future of catastrophic impacts, including rising sea levels, more devastating floods and droughts, widespread food and water shortages and more powerful storm.

Before taking effect, the deal needs to be ratified by at least 55 countries making up at least 55 percent of global emissions. The financial commitments are huge, especially on behalf of rich countries to help third world nations.

Obama has made combating global climate change a top priority of his presidency but has encountered stiff resistance to his proposals from Republicans in Congress.

Other critical parts of the agreement, like emissions benchmarks and billions of dollars in climate aid from developed countries, were left out of the legally-binding section of the agreement.

Some might say the agreement glossed over the most contentious issues, among them the developing nations’ insistence that established countries shoulder the lion’s share of responsibility, because they have emitted most of the greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. For a start, they are asked to report on their progress, using an global standard every five years, with new and, hopefully, more ambitious, goals set in the future. Now, with the Paris climate accord in place, those days are over. Primarily, though, the goal will require the “de-carbonization” of the world economy: replacing fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas with renewable forms of energy like wind and solar power. With such an aggressive goal for global temperatures, world leaders agree that clean energy infrastructure is key to edging out risky GHG emissions and smog-inducing pollution.