Signed, sealed, delivered…

There were tears, cheers and selfies as climate pact was sealed in Paris, but the road ahead is not exactly an easy one. World leaders are calling this pact a historic one, but there are those who are terming it un-ambitious. Even if both are true, there is a lot of work to be done to change our future

Joshua MELVIN /AFP | DECEMBER 14, 2015, 12:00 AM IST

Photo Credits: OPED LEAD 1_2

They erupted into cheers, broke into tears, took selfies and quoted great figures of history after the gavel came down in Paris on Saturday, launching the quest to save mankind from global warming. The roughly 2,000 ministers, negotiators and activists in the cavernous plenary hall on the outskirts of the French capital took to their feet in a joyous uprising as their French hosts beamed onstage. After almost three minutes of cheering died down French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who presided over 13 days of gruelling talks, picked up the green leaf-shaped gavel and brought it down again. "It may be a small gavel but it can do big things," he said, drawing more elated cries and clapping.

In bringing down the tiny hammer, Fabius sealed an agreement that French diplomats spent more than a year criss-crossing the globe and preparing with meticulous detail. The mood in the room was celebratory even before the emotional approval of the accord, with broad smiles, back-slapping, hugs and handshakes. Former vice president Al Gore, who co-won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change, posed for pictures and selfies with admirers. Suspense was high right up to the end, with the session to approve the accord starting about two hours late. When Fabius finally took the stage -- to thunderous applause -- he told the crowd: "There had been a couple questions to settle".

It turned out the negotiators, bleary after two sleepless night spent hammering out the agreement had left a few mistakes in the text. One was a whopper. A key section of the text on emissions-cutting obligations -- erroneously -- said rich nations "shall" take the lead in undertaking economy-wide absolute emission reduction targets. In a complex legal agreement such as the Paris accord, "shall" carries a more onerous level of responsibility. It was supposed to say "should", which does not have the same binding nature. Pascal Canfin, a senior climate advisor at the World Resources Institute, wrote on Twitter the difference could have forced the Paris deal before the US Congress for approval.

For the accord's boosters, that possibility was terrifying as the Republican-dominated legislature would have -- with near-certainty -- rejected the agreement. Among those fighting for the accord it must have felt like deja vu, with the US failing to adopt the carbon-cutting Kyoto Protocol, which the Paris agreement will succeed when it takes effect in 2020. But Fabius, showing the calmness that became a hallmark of the French diplomatic effort, then reassured ministers the text would be tweaked to reflect the correct language.

The final hurdle blocking the agreement dropped away. Many ministers, who were brought in to close the deal following talks among lower-level negotiators, noted the history-making nature of the moment, referring to great figures of the 20th century, especially South African democracy hero Nelson Mandela. "We hope that Paris will mark a new beginning where commitments made will be fulfilled," said Indian Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar. "It is India's hope that the Paris agreement will fulfil the wishes of Mahatma Gandhi who used to say we should care for a world we will not see."

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Following are key points in the Paris Agreement:

The challenge -The agreement identifies climate change as "an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet". It notes "with concern" that countries' existing pledges to curb greenhouse-gas emissions would fail to meet targets for curbing planetary warming.

The goal -The purpose is to hold global warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, and to strive for 1.5C if possible.

Getting there -The world will aim for climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions to peak "as soon as possible", with "rapid reductions" thereafter. By the second half of this century, there must be a balance between the emissions from human activity such as energy production and farming, and the amount that can be captured by carbon-absorbing "sinks" such as forests or carbon storage technology.

Burden-sharing -Developed countries, which have polluted for longer, should take "the lead" by taking on absolute emissions cuts. Developing nations which still need to burn coal and oil to power growing populations, are encouraged to enhance their efforts and "move over time" to cuts. Rich countries are required to provide support for developing nations' emissions cuts.

Tracking progress -In 2018, two years before the agreement enters into force, countries will take stock of the overall impact of what they are doing to rein in global warming, and revisit their carbon-curbing plans in 2020. Some countries had submitted their first round of targets until 2025, and others until 2030. Once the agreement takes effect, the collective impact of countries' efforts will be reviewed at five-year intervals from 2023. The outcome will inform countries in "updating and enhancing" their pledges.

Finance -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. Funding must be scaled up, and the agreement says rich nations must report every two years on their finance levels -- current and intended. Moved from the legally binding core agreement to a separate non-binding "decision section", the document refers to the $100 billion a year that rich countries had pledged to muster by 2020 as a "floor". The amount must be updated by 2025.

Climate damage -Low-lying island nations and poor countries most at risk from climate change-induced sea level rise and other impacts, have won recognition of the need for "averting, minimising and addressing" losses suffered.

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..but some people aren’t really convinced

A global accord for taming global warming, sealed at UN talks in Paris on Saturday, represents a potential body-blow to the fossil-fuel business, Greenpeace and other prominent environment groups said. "The wheel of climate action turns slowly, but in Paris it has turned. This deal puts the fossil-fuel industry on the wrong side of history," Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo said. "Today the human race has joined in a common cause, but it's what happens after this conference that really matters," he added.

Greenpeace, major green groups and climate change researchers gave a mixed report card on the many details in the accord, endorsed by ministers from 195 nations at the talks. But they emphasised that by striving to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C over pre-Industrial Revolution temperatures, the agreement would have an impact. "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," Naidoo predicted.

Researchers and activists declared that the agreement would make history. "The Paris Agreement marks a new form of international cooperation –- one where developed and developing countries are united by a common and fair framework," said Jennifer Morgan, global director of the climate programme at the World Resources Institute (WRI), a Washington-based think tank. "The agreement is both ambitious and powered by the voices of the most vulnerable."

May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, an organisation pressing financial institutions to divest from fossil fuels, also said the 1.5C reference was key. "This marks the end of the era of fossil fuels. There is no way to meet the targets laid out in this agreement without keeping coal, oil and gas in the ground," Boeve said. Tim Gore, policy director at British charity Oxfam, said a provision aiming to cap global warming at 1.5C would require an unprecedented global effort.

The emissions reduction plans submitted by some 185 nations ahead of the talks have put Earth on a path to least about 3.0C degrees of warming. "The 1.5C degree target is an important moral victory, but -- as we have heard -- it may yet ring hollow unless we see significant increases in action in the years ahead," Gore said. Morgan echoed his warning, noting nations around the global must accelerate the pace of change. "World leaders need to build on the momentum created by the Paris moment and move even faster and further toward a decarbonised economy."

More critical, Friends of the Earth said prosperous nations had pushed through an empty accord. "Rich countries have moved the goal posts so far that we are left with a sham of a deal in Paris," said Sara Shaw, an activist with Friends of the Earth International. "Through piecemeal pledges and bullying tactics, rich countries have pushed through a very bad deal."

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