Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has signed the historic Paris climate agreement along with other 174 nations at a high-level ceremony hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York. The agreement will mark as a significant step that brings developing and developed nations together to combat global warming by working to cut down greenhouse gas emissions.
The agreement will officially come into force when 55 countries — representing 55 percent of global emissions — have signed and ratified the deal. Both the United States and China, which are responsible jointly for 40 percent of global emissions, have said they intend to ratify the deal nationally during 2016.
The Paris Agreement, briefly stated, has a handful of goals:
- Prevent an increase in global mean temperature of more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), and push for a tougher 1.5 degree Celsius limit, compared with pre-industrial levels
- Require countries to set their own national targets beginning in 2020
- Mandate reporting, including a non-binding transparency to show if countries are meeting their targets
- Allocate funding for small island countries most affected by rising water levels — without assigning liability or implying any nations in particular must compensate them
- Creation of a $100 billion per-year fund, not included in the agreement, but made as commitments by wealthy countries and the private sector, to offset the cost of changing technology and climate damage to poor countries
The plan goes into effect 30 days after the required countries ratify it, but a nation may not withdraw for three years, and then only after giving one year’s notice.
