Envoys from 195 nations on Saturday approved an accord in Paris that aims to minimize the expected effects of global warming.
French Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius ended nearly two weeks of UN negotiations on the outskirts of Paris with the bang of a gavel, marking consensus among the ministers, who stood for several minutes to clap and shout their joy, with some shedding tears.
“I see the room, I see the reaction is positive, I hear no objection. The Paris climate accord is adopted,” said Fabius, the president of the talks.
Photo: AFP
The post-2020 Paris Agreement ends decades-long rows between rich and poor nations over how to carry out what will be a multitrillion-dollar campaign aimed at capping global warming and coping with the expected results of climate change.
“The Paris agreement establishes the enduring framework the world needs to solve the climate crisis,” US President Barack Obama said. “We came together around the strong agreement the world needed. We met the moment.”
“Paris will always be connected with this historic turning point in climate policy,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
The debate over the deal entailed slashing or eliminating the use of coal, oil and gas for energy, which has largely powered prosperity since the Industrial Revolution.
The burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases, which are said to warm the planet and disrupt the climate.
The deal outlines a pathway to switch to “cleaner” sources of energy, such as solar and wind, and improving energy efficiency. Some nations are also pursuing nuclear power.
The Paris accord sets a target of limiting warming of the planet to “well below” 2oC compared with temperatures at the time of the Industrial Revolution, while aiming for an even more ambitious goal of 1.5oC.
To do so, emissions of greenhouse gases will need to peak “as soon as possible,” followed by rapid reductions, the agreement says.
Some environmentalists said the Paris agreement was a turning point, predicting the 1.5oC goal would help to doom the fossil-fuel industry.
“That single number, and the new goal of net-zero emissions by the second half of this century, will cause consternation in the boardrooms of coal companies and the palaces of oil-exporting states,” Greenpeace International head Kumi Naidoo said.
Developing nations had insisted that rich countries must shoulder the lion’s share of responsibility for tackling climate change, as they emitted most of the greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution.
The US and other rich nations countered that emerging giants must also do more, adding that developing nations now account for most of current emissions and thus would be largely responsible for future warming.
On the financing issue, developed countries agreed to muster at least US$100 billion per year from 2020 to help developing nations.
However, following US objections, it was not included in the legally binding section of the deal.
Ahead of the talks, most nations submitted voluntary plans to curb greenhouse-gas emissions from 2020, a process billed as an important platform for success.
In an effort to get countries to scale up their commitments, the agreement will have five-yearly reviews of their pledges starting from 2023.
Nations most vulnerable to climate change lobbied hard for the wording to limit warming to 1.5oC. Big polluters, such as China, India and oil-producing giant Saudi Arabia, preferred a ceiling of 2oC, which would have enabled them to burn fossil fuels for longer.
Tuvalu — a Pacific Island nation of about 10,000 people at risk of being submerged if oceans rise too much — celebrated.
“We have saved Tuvalu, and in doing so we have saved the world,” Tuvalu negotiator Ian Fry said.
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