196 countries approve historic climate agreement

196 countries approve historic climate agreement
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By Joby Warrick and Chris Mooney December 12 at 3:38 PM

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World climate accord hailed as historic turning point

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After weeks of negotiations diplomats in France unveiled a landmark deal to tackle climate change and reduce greenhouse gases. If adopted, the accord aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than two degrees Celsius. (Reuters)
LE BOURGET, France — Negotiators from 196 countries approved a landmark climate accord on Saturday that seeks to dramatically reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for a dangerous warming of the planet.
The agreement, adopted after 13 days of intense bargaining in a Paris suburb, puts the world’s nations on a course that could fundamentally change the way energy is produced and consumed, gradually reducing reliance on fossil fuels in favor of cleaner forms of energy.
[Read the text of the draft climate agreement here.]
“History will remember this day,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after the pact was gaveled through to thunderous applause. “The Paris agreement on climate change is a monumental success for the planet and its people.”
The deal was struck in a rare show of near-universal accord, as poor and wealthy nations from across the political and geographic spectrum expressed support for measures that require all to take steps to battle climate change. The agreement binds together pledges by individual nations to cut or limit emissions from fossil-fuel burning, within a framework of rules that provide for monitoring and verification as well as financial and technical assistance for developing countries.
The overarching goal is to bring down pollution levels so that the rise in global temperatures is limited to no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above historical averages. Delegates added language that expressed an ambition to restrict the temperature increase even further, to 1.5 degrees C,  if possible.
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French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who presided over the talks, hailed the pact as a “historical turning point” that could spare the planet’s 7.3 billion people from the most disruptive effects of global warming in decades to come. Before the vote, he urged delegates not to shirk from taking steps that could avert an environmental disaster.
“The citizens of the world – our own citizens – and our children would not understand it. Nor, I believe, would they forgive us,” Fabius said.
Cheers echoed up and down the tent city where thousands of journalists, activists and business leaders awaited news of the deal, which was sealed during the final 48 hours of nearly non-stop talks.
[196 ountries just agreed to a historic climate deal. Here’s what happens next.]
“This is a tremendous victory for all of our citizens–not for any one country or bloc, but a victory for all of the planet, and for future generations,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said after the accord was announced. “The world has come together behind an agreement that will empower us to chart a new path for our planet: a smart and responsible path, a sustainable path.”
The accord is the first to call on all nations—rich and poor—to take action to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, with additional reviews required very five years to encourage even deeper pollution cuts. A major goal, official said, is to spur governments and private industry to rapidly develop new technologies to help solve the climate challenge.
“Markets now have the clear signal to unleash the full force of human ingenuity,” said Ban Ki-moon, who praised the pact as “ambitious, credible, flexible and durable.
“The work starts tomorrow,” he said.
[Ice worlds face extinction in warming planet]
The agreement is a major diplomatic achievement for the Obama administration, which has made climate change a signature issue in the face of determined opposition from congressional Republicans, many of whom dispute the scientific consensus that links man-made pollution to the Earth’s recent warming.
President Obama helped set the stage for the agreement by forging a deal with China last year to work jointly to scale back emissions from their two countries, the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. U.S. officials also helped engineer the accord’s unusual “bottom-up” structure, which, by relying on voluntary pledges to cut emissions, spares the White House from having to seek formal approval from a hostile Congress.
Environmental groups generally appraised the accord, though some complained the delegates did not go far enough in helping the world’s poorest countries cope with effects of climate change that already are being felt.
“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. The climate talks in Paris showed us that this false narrative now belongs in the dustbin of history.”
[Tiny islands become driving force at Paris climate talks]
Among those witnessing the final approval was former Vice President Al Gore, who had pressed for two decades for a climate deal.
“Years from now, our grandchildren will reflect on humanity’s moral courage to solve the climate crisis and they will look to December 12, 2015, as the day when the community of nations finally made the decision to act,” Gore said. “This universal and ambitious agreement sends a clear signal to governments, businesses, and investors everywhere: the transformation of our global economy from one fueled by dirty energy to one fueled by sustainable economic growth is now firmly and inevitably underway.”
Officials acknowledged that the compromise accord is insufficient, by itself, to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 2 degrees C [3.6 degrees F] above pre-industrial averages, an increase that many scientists believe is the maximum amount of warming the planet can sustain without massive disruptions in natural ecosystems. But the treaty is structured to allow nations to adopt more ambitious cuts in emissions as new technology becomes available.
“There is an ambitious but necessary long-term objective,” Fabius said.
“The reduction of greenhouse gases have become the business of all.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/12/12/proposed-historic-climate-pact-nears-final-vote/?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_ee-climate-801am:homepage/story&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-world%252Bnation

Read that on a FOX alert little while ago, guess oil is about over.....many more years from now but, see so much regulation coming into play asap.

This will be interesting since it is nonbinding and as I understand it, we are going into a mini ice age.  Also, once this El Neno passes and we see the damage it causes, and it is not part of the global warming, but a cyclical event of nature, I give it a couple of years before we see any "backlash or fallout" from the vote today.