After more than seven years of negotiating, more than 190 countries have agreed on a climate change agreement designed to stop the onslaught of global warming. The landmark agreement was reached during the United Nations’ COP21 Climate Change Summit in Paris.
Weighing in at 20 pages, the deal includes a goal of employing different measures to keep the global temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. As the world gets hotter, there’s an increased chance for dangerous weather, like hurricanes and typhoons, as well as hotter temperatures throughout the year.
To achieve this goal, the world would need to reach zero carbon emissions after 2050.
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U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that “history will remember this day,” because “the Paris agreement on climate change is a monumental success for the planet and its people.”
The United States is on board with the agreement. The White House is calling the deal “the most ambitious climate change agreement in history,” because it produces “a long-term, durable global framework” that can slow down the impact of global warming.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was a part of America’s negotiating team for this agreement. He thinks that this deal can “prevent the worst most devastating consequences of climate change from ever happening.”
President Barack Obama tweeted about the deal, writing that it came to be because of American leadership.
This is huge: Almost every country in the world just signed on to the #ParisAgreement on climate change—thanks to American leadership.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 12, 2015