After climate agreement, focus turns to action in individual nations, green technology

The landmark climate change agreement approved by 195 countries on Saturday took six years and a lot of hard work and diplomacy to forge. The agreement did not go as far as many environmentalists and climate scientists had hoped, but most of them called it a positive first step. After the calamity of the 2009 climate talks in Copenhagen, "it was a wonderful surprise that... these 195 countries could come to an agreement more ambitious than anyone imagined," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told The New York Times. "This never happens."

The climate pact has relative winners and losers — the U.S. got most of what it wanted, for example, while India got more of a mixed bag — but there are no legally binding carbon emission targets, and the plans submitted by 188 nations would still raise global temperatures to 2.7 to 3.5 degrees above preindustrial levels, according to one widely cited analysis, high above the 1.5 degree target set by the accord (currently, the Earth is nearing 1 degree). And the agreement won't come into force until at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions formally sign on — all nations are invited to ceremonially sign the accord April 22 at the United Nations in New York.

Now, the focus shifts to research on new renewable energy technologies, moving rapidly developing nations like India away from a dependence on coal, and within each country, meeting the goals they have set for themselves. "Paris has delivered a plan," climate scientist Richard Allen at Britain's University of Reading tells The Wall Street Journal, "next begins the hard bit: action." That said, you can watch the moment the delegates and guests learned that the talks had succeeded, and a plan agreed to, in the video below. Peter Weber

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up