OSLO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A global agreement to combat climate change will take force after support from European nations sent the accord across an important threshold on Wednesday, prompting U.S. President Barack Obama to hail it as a “historic day” for protecting the planet.

European nations, Canada, Bolivia and Nepal raised backing for the 2015 Paris Agreement to countries representing 56.87 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions, above the 55 percent needed for implementation, a United Nations website showed.

The deal will formally start in 30 days on Nov. 4, four days before the U.S. presidential election in which Republican Donald Trump opposes the accord and Democrat Hillary Clinton strongly supports it.

China and the United States joined up last month in a joint step by the world’s top emitters.

Obama called Wednesday “a historic day in the fight to protect our planet for future generations” and he told reporters on the White House Rose Garden: “If we follow through on the commitments that this Paris agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet.”

Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Portugal and Malta - European Union nations which have completed domestic ratification and account for about four percent of emissions - formally signed up on Wednesday.

In total, 73 countries out of 195 have ratified the agreement, according to the U.N. website.

“Great job!” tweeted European Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete.

The Europeans brought forward a formal submission of documents to the United Nations from a ceremony planned on Friday, fearing that other nations might ratify and trigger entry into force without them.

“We didn’t want to be upstaged,” an EU diplomat said.

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a statement on the Paris Agreement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 5, 2016. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Many praised the rapid ratification of an agreement meant to cut global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, to limit floods, droughts, more powerful storms and rising ocean levels.

“What once seemed unthinkable is now unstoppable,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.

But all said more work was needed.

“It is no exaggeration to say we are in a race against time,” said Thoriq Ibrahim, Environment Minister for the Maldives and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States which fears the impact of rising sea levels.

By contrast, it took eight years for the previous U.N. climate deal, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, to gain enough backing to take effect. It obliged only rich nations to cut emissions and the United States stayed out of it.

Opposition continues in the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress to Democrat Obama’s climate change policies.

Tourists protect themselves from the rain under umbrellas in front of the Eiffel tower as they visit the French capital during summer holidays in Paris, France July 19, 2011. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo

“The Paris climate deal would be disastrous for the American economy,” said House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican.

By contrast, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever and Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, said ratification showed that a shift to a low-carbon economy is “urgent, inevitable, and accelerating faster than we ever believed possible”.

Still, current national pledges for cuts in emissions are insufficient to achieve a Paris goal of limiting a rise in world temperatures to “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

U.N. studies project that average world temperatures are set to rise by 3 degrees (5.4 Fahrenheit) or more by 2100, based on current trends. And this year is expected to prove the warmest since records began in the 19th century, beating 2015.</s>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The landmark Paris agreement on climate change will enter into force on Nov. 4, after being pushed past a key threshold Wednesday by a coalition of the world’s largest polluters and small island nations threatened by rising seas.

President Barack Obama hailed the news as “a turning point for our planet,” and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the agreement’s strong international support a “testament for the urgency of action.” Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech, called it: “A moment of bright hope in the increasingly discouraging landscape of climate science.”

U.N. Spokesman Farhan Haq said the EU, Canada and Nepal would deposit their instruments of ratification Wednesday, edging the percentage of emissions by ratifying countries past the 55 percent threshold needed for the treaty to take effect.

“I am delighted to announce that today the Paris Agreement will cross the second and final threshold needed for entry into force, and will enter into force on 4 November 2016,” Ban said in a statement issued from Europe. “Global momentum for the Paris Agreement to enter into force in 2016 has been remarkable. What once seemed unthinkable is now unstoppable. ”

The deal takes effect 30 days after 55 countries, accounting for at least 55 percent of global emissions, have adopted it. Sixty-two countries had done so as of Tuesday but they accounted only for about 52 percent of emissions.

A U.N. website said that as of Wednesday afternoon 73 of the 197 parties to the treaty, accounting for 56.87 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, have deposited their instruments of ratification.

Obama welcomed the news with a special address in the Rose Garden.

“Today, the world meets the moment,” Obama said. “And if we follow through on the commitments that this Paris agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet.”

The Paris agreement commits rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns. It requires governments to present national plans to reduce emissions to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

While the targets in the agreement are not legally binding, the treaty does require countries to report on emissions and their progress on reaching the goals in the national climate plans they submitted to the U.N. The countries are also required to maintain those plans, update them every five years and to pursue measures to implement their stated goals.

“It’s clearly a momentous moment in terms of global action on climate change,” said David Waskow, international climate director at World Resources Institute. “This has been much more rapid than anticipated and demonstrates political support for the agreement.”

The accord, which was adopted by consensus on Dec. 12, 2015, has entered into force at what is considered record speed for international diplomacy, reflecting a sense of urgency in the fight against global warming and a desire to seal the deal before Ban and Obama leave office.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton supports the accord, while Republican Donald Trump opposes it.

International momentum had been building to ensure that the deal could enter force before the next U.N. climate conference, which starts Nov. 7 in Marrakech, Morocco.

Morocco’s Ambassador of Multilateral Negotiations Aziz Mekouar said with the treaty entering into force Marrakech will now host the first Conference of Parties to the Paris agreement.

“Last year, it was an historic event,” Mekouar said, referring to the conference where the agreement was first adopted. “This year, it’s even more of an historic event.”

Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences at Princeton University, warned, however, that there’s still a long road ahead.

“There’s a lot of hard work ahead to fulfill the main Paris goal, avoiding dangerous climate change. Without focused efforts starting now, we are not going to avoid falling over a very steep cliff,” Oppenheimer said in an email.

Associated Press Writers Nancy Benac and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.</s>India had ratified the Paris climate agreement on on October 2, becoming the 62nd country.

The Paris Agreement on climate change will enter into force on November 4 as enough countries have signed onto the landmark accord to bring it to the emissions threshold that will trigger its implementation, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said.

“This is a momentous occasion,” Secretary-General said after the deal was ratified by 72 countries accounting for more than 56 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“Global momentum for the Paris Agreement to enter into force in 2016 has been remarkable. What once seemed unthinkable is now unstoppable. Strong international support for the Paris Agreement entering into force is a testament to the urgency for action, and reflects the consensus of governments that robust global cooperation, grounded in national action, is essential to meet the climate challenge,” he added.

India, the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, had ratified the Paris climate agreement on Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2, becoming the 62nd country to deposit its legal instrument of ratification for the climate pact and bringing the global pact “tantalizingly” close to entering into force.

Mr. Ban had “warmly” congratulated India for ratifying and formally joining the Paris Agreement, and had said India’s leadership moves the world an important step closer toward the 55 per cent threshold needed for the historic agreement’s entry into force this year.

India accounts for 4.1 per cent of the emissions and after it joined the agreement, the Paris pact had needed slightly more than three percentage points to reach the 55 per cent threshold to enter into force.

The requirements for entry into force were satisfied yesterday when Austria, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Malta, Nepal, Portugal and Slovakia, as well as the European Union, deposited their instruments of ratification with the Secretary-General.

The Agreement will now enter into force in time for the Climate Conference (COP 22) in Morocco in November, where countries will convene the first Meeting of the Parties to the Agreement.

Countries that have not yet joined may participate as observers.

The UN Chief however cautioned that the work of implementing the agreement still lay ahead.

“Now we must move from words to deeds and put Paris into action. We need all hands on deck — every part of society must be mobilised to reduce emissions and help communities adapt to inevitable climate impacts,” he stressed.

“I urge all governments and all sectors of society to implement the Paris Agreement in full and to take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and support the most vulnerable in adapting to inevitable climate impacts,” he said.

Welcoming the news that the Paris agreement on climate change will enter into force in 30 days, US President Barack Obama has termed it as a “turning point” for protecting the planet for future generations by avoiding some of the worst consequences of global warming.

“Today is a historic day in the fight to protect our planet for future generations...Today, the world has officially crossed the threshold for the Paris Agreement to take effect. Today, the world meets the moment. And if we follow through on the commitments that this agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet,” Mr. Obama said in his remarks at the Rose Garden of the White House Wednesday.

At the same time, Mr. Obama said Paris Agreement alone will not solve the climate crisis.

“Even if we meet every target embodied in the agreement, we’ll only get to part of where we need to go. But make no mistake, this agreement will help delay or avoid some of the worst consequences of climate change,” he argued.

“It will help other nations ratchet down their dangerous carbon emissions over time, and set bolder targets as technology advances, all under a strong system of transparency that allows each nation to evaluate the progress of all other nations,” he added.

“And by sending a signal that this is going to be our future — a clean energy future — it opens up the floodgates for businesses, and scientists, and engineers to unleash high-tech, low-carbon investment and innovation at a scale that we’ve never seen before,” Mr. Obama asserted.

In a statement, the US Secretary of State John Kerry said enough countries — representing enough of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions — have submitted their instruments to formally join the agreement.

The Paris Agreement will enter into force in 30 days, he said.

“For many years, scientists have been warning us that climate change is real, it is happening now, and, barring global action to change the course our planet is on, it will have devastating impacts in nearly every corner of the world,” he said.

“Today it is crystal clear that we have finally woken up,” Mr. Kerry said.

“The reason we were able to pass the required threshold so early is that many of the largest emitters in the world — including the United States, China, India, the EU and a number of its member states — recognised the need to continue the momentum from Paris and joined swiftly to bring this Agreement into force as quickly as possible,” he said.

In a statement, the Trump campaign slammed Obama administration for the climate change deal, which it alleged would harm US economic interests.

“Politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to make bad deals that undermine the interests of the American people. The Paris Accord is just the latest example,” it said.</s>In a historic vote held at the plenary session of the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, a majority of the members voted in favour of ratifying the Paris Agreement. The vote paved the way for the entry into force of the Agreement — to keep global warming levels less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels - in November this year, with 610 out of 678 parliament members voting in favour of the ratification. Only 38 EU member votes were in the negative, and the rest of the members abstained from voting on Tuesday.

As per the rules of the Agreement, adopted in Paris last year, the cumulative emissions of the ratifying parties must cross the minimum required threshold of 55 per cent of global emissions for it to enter into force. Tuesday’s EU vote will help the treaty to cross this minimum. Accounting for approximately 12 per cent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally, the EU-28 nations will add to the 52 per cent of global emissions that the 62 ratifying parties have covered already.

At a press conference held soon after the vote, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was present during the vote, said that EU nations will formally submit their joint instrument of ratification in a few days, and with this, the Paris Agreement will be ready to take effect in November.

Only seven EU nations — France, Germany, Malta, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and Portugal — have ratified the Paris Agreement at the national level. However, after the EU submits its instrument of ratification, the member nations will work on following the requisite procedures back at home.

Mr. Ban was glad that the ratifying parties now included the most powerful economies, responsible for human-induced climate change, as well as the most vulnerable countries, facing the worst impacts of the climate crisis.

French Environment Minister Segolene Royal said that the EU is looking to formally submit its ratification instruments on Friday, which will ensure that the treaty comes into force by November 7, when the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change takes off in Marrakesh, Morocco.

As per the rules, the Agreement will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 parties, representing at least 55 per cent of global emissions have ratified it.

In a statement released on Tuesday, EU President Jean-Claude Juncker said, “Today the European Union turned climate ambition into climate action. The Paris Agreement is the first of its kind and it would not have been possible were it not for the European Union. Today we continued to show leadership and prove that, together, the European Union can deliver.”

In the course of the parliamentary debate on Tuesday, some EU members, who were against the ratification, raised concerns about citizens having to pay more for cars, heating, and electricity, due to possible outcomes of the climate agreement entering into force.

However, the overwhelming majority of members, who voted in favour, sought to put such fears to rest by pointing out that instead of reducing emissions, options for storing carbon could be explored, and that Europe’s economy will remain competitive despite the proposed emission cuts.

Other EU members of the parliament sought to point out that since the provisions of the Paris Agreement are now set to become legally binding, it must be ensured that the US, one of the largest countries in terms of GHG emissions, is not allowed to pursue its own interest, but play its legitimate part in cutting emissions.

Coming as the vote does shortly after the EU held a referendum on the refugee crisis, which saw member nations raising their voices against migration, Mr. Ban pointed out that addressing climate change will also help the EU address the refugee crisis, as harsh climatic conditions were also one of the triggers for migration, besides political instability and violence.

“People do not find their places sustainable for living due to climate change. Addressing this will definitely reduce the possibilities of people fleeing or leaving their country for better opportunities,” he said.</s>Traffic moves as smoke emits from the chimney of a factory on the outskirts of Gauhati, India, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016. India is scheduled to deposit the ratification instruments of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change with the U.N. on Oct. 2, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth, who believed in a minimum carbon footprint. India accounts for about 4.5 percent of emissions. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Paris agreement on climate change will enter into force in 30 days, after the number of countries ratifying the accord surpassed a key threshold.

U.N. Spokesman Farhan Haq said the EU, Canada and Nepal are all expected to deposit their instruments of ratification over the course of the day Wednesday.

The deal takes effect 30 days after 55 countries, accounting for at least 55 percent of global emissions, have adopted it. Sixty-two countries had done so as of Tuesday but they accounted only for about 52 percent of emissions.

With the addition of Nepal, Canada and the seven EU countries that have so far ratified the deal, the countries now account for well over 55 percent of emissions.</s>European nations, Canada, Bolivia and Nepal boosted official backing for the 2015 Paris Agreement to countries representing more than 55 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions, as needed for implementation.

By Thursday, 74 countries or parties to the U.N. climate change convention had formally joined the Paris Agreement, adding up to nearly 60 percent of global emissions, a U.N. website showed.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Wednesday "a historic day in the fight to protect our planet for future generations".

"If we follow through on the commitments that this Paris agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet," he said.

Work will start at U.N. climate talks in Morocco next month to hammer out the rules for putting the accord into practice.

Here is a selection of comments on the agreement's entry into force from top officials and climate change experts:

"Today it is crystal clear that we have finally woken up. We have learned from the false starts of the past, and we are now - finally - on the path to protecting the future for our children, our grandchildren and generations to come." Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Secretary-General: "Now we must move from words to deeds and put Paris into action. We need all hands on deck - every part of society must be mobilised to reduce emissions and help communities adapt to inevitable climate impacts."

"Entry into force bodes well for the urgent, accelerated implementation of climate action that is now needed to realise a better, more secure world and to support also the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals." Mohamed Adow, senior climate advisor, Christian Aid:

"The speed at which the Paris Agreement has come into force has been remarkable. But we now need to see tangible actions to follow just as quickly. As Hurricane Matthew leaves destruction across the Caribbean, we're reminded that our climate continues to undergo rapid change and we are continuing to pollute it." Wolfgang Jamann, CEO and secretary general, CARE International:

To see the benefits of the Paris Agreement, "we need to keep the momentum, and quickly step up actions to cut emissions by shifting away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Governments need to rapidly improve the climate resilience of their most vulnerable and marginalised populations especially women and girls. Otherwise the agreement will be an empty shell, and the consequences will continue to be devastating for millions around the world." Heather Coleman, climate change manager, Oxfam America:

"While countries have all pledged to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, the collective commitments made are still not enough to prevent dangerous climate change. Countries need to implement and scale up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to a clean, resilient economy.

Oxfam estimates that the communities most vulnerable to feeling the effects of climate change are only receiving a fraction of the money that rich countries pledged to adaptation." Jennifer Morgan, executive director, Greenpeace International:

"Now that a truly global binding climate agreement is in place, governments should have the confidence to not only meet but also beat their national targets and provide support to the poorest countries." Andrew Steer, president and CEO, World Resources Institute:

"With the agreement in full force, countries can shift their focus from commitment to action.

We must create more liveable, low-carbon cities and expand the supply of land and forests for carbon storage. We must slash food loss and waste, a major source of emissions and a travesty for people who lack enough food. And, we must continue to work at all levels - global, national, cities and communities - to build the political will for this transformation."

"The entry (into force) of the Paris climate agreement represents a turning point in the fight against climate change: the era of fossil fuels is finally coming to an end. Now the real work begins. The only way to meet the 1.5 or 2°C target (for global temperature rise) is to keep fossil fuels in the ground. The fossil fuel industry's current 'drill and burn' business plan is completely incompatible with this agreement." Steve Howard, chief sustainability officer, IKEA Group:

"The Paris agreement represents a turning point for business. The certainty of ever-stronger policies to reduce emissions creates clarity and unlocks opportunities for developing products, services and operations for a low-carbon economy. We are only at the beginning, but the pace at which countries have been ratifying the agreement shows that the policy leadership is there to achieve real change. Now we need to work together for a rapid transition to a future built on clean, renewable energy." (Reporting by Megan Rowling @meganrowling; editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)</s>The momentous Paris climate change agreement is set to take effect on November 4, after an alliance of the planet’s largest polluters and small island countries affected by rising oceans pushed things past a culminating point on Wednesday.

The news was met with applause from world leaders. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the solid international support as “a testament for the urgency of action,” while United States President Barack Obama heralded the news as “a turning point for our planet,” the Washington Post reports.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq announced Wednesday that the European Union and ten other countries – Austria, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Malta, Nepal, Portugal, and Slovakia – submitted their instruments of ratification on Wednesday. The percentage of emissions these countries account for in total surpassed the 55% threshold necessary for the treaty to take effect, Haq said.

The agreement will take effect 30 days after 55 countries that are responsible for at least 55% of the world’s greenhouse gasses have adopted it. As of Tuesday, 62 countries had agreed, but they had only accounted for 52% of emissions.

The United Nations website declared that as of Wednesday, 73 of the 197 countries in the treaty that account for 56.87% of global emissions have deposited their instruments of ramification.

The Paris agreement holds participating countries, rich and poor alike, to take action and address the rise in global temperatures that are currently raising sea levels, melting ice caps and glaciers, and rainfall patterns. The agreement mandates nations to present their respective plans on how to reduce emissions to limit global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius.

The goals set out are not legally binding, but the treaty does entail that countries report on their emissions and progress on achieving the goals set out last year in the plans they submitted. The countries are likewise required to maintain these programs, update them every five years and take measure to implement their goals.

The agreement was ratified by consensus on December 12, 2015, and has taken off in what experts believe to be a record speed for international negotiations, highlighting the urgency that global warming poses and the need to seal the deal before Ban and Obama leave office.

The next UN climate conference will begin on Nov. 7 in Marrakech, Morroco, where the first Conference of Parties to the Paris agreement will take place.</s>The Government has been accused of ignoring its own climate change experts in order to allow the “fracking floodgates to open across the country”. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid decided to allow fracking for shale gas to take place at a site in Lancashire, overruling the county council which had refused a planning application.

Mr Javid went further with the planning report saying he believed fracking “could help to achieve lower carbon emissions and help meet [the UK’s] climate change target” and that “the emissions likely to arise [from the Lancashire fracking wells] would be entirely reasonable and fully justified.”

However environmentalists pointed to a report published this year by the Committee on Climate Change, set up to advise the Government. It concluded that fracking “on a significant scale is not compatible with UK climate targets” unless a number of conditions were met.

These included ensuring that British fracked gas replaced imports, rather than increasing the total supply, and making sure this new source of energy did not displace low-carbon energy.

The Government insisted it was already or would meet all the conditions in the event of fracking taking off in the UK.

But Hannah Martin, a campaigner with Greenpeace, said: “The Committee on Climate Change said that fracking would be incompatible with meeting its climate targets unless the Government set out how it would meet tough new standards on emissions.

“The Government has so far been silent on how it intends to meet these conditions.

“So until that becomes clear, expanding the fracking industry in the UK flies in the face of our climate targets and the Paris Agreement [on climate change].”

The Paris Agreement is set to become a binding international treaty next month after enough countries agreed to ratify it.

The UK has done so as a member of the European Union, but is also expected to do so as an individual state later this year.

It commits countries to reducing carbon emissions in order to keep global warming to as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible – although the actual pledges made by countries at the summit could see temperatures rise by more than three degrees.

“In his ruling, Sajid Javid seems to almost be saying that fracking is good for the environment,” Ms Martin said.

“The Government cannot wave through fracking permits and claim that there is no cumulative effect on climate change.

“This is the first of many fracking licenses that the Government wants to see go ahead. Theresa May declared her support for fracking soon after entering number 10.

“And so it is likely that the Government intends the fracking floodgates to open across the country.”

The Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy – which deals with climate change issues – insisted fracking could be carried out while still reducing emissions.

“The Government, the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive have put measures in place to limit and monitor emissions that meet the conditions set out in the Committee on Climate Change report, so we can continue to tackle climate change and take advantage of the benefits a fracking industry could provide,” a Government spokesperson said.

In an email to The Independent, Professor Jim Watson, director of the UK Energy Research Centre, said the Government was right to say shale gas “could” help to achieve lower carbon emissions, but wrong when it said they “would” do so.

“The impact on emissions depends when shale is produced and how it is used,” he said.

“If gas replaces a more high carbon source of energy, there will be a net reduction in emissions. But most of the coal-to-gas switching has already been done in the UK.

“In principle, shale gas could have lower emissions on a life-cycle basis than other sources of gas … if it is tightly regulated – but that is not the same as gas in general being a good route for reducing emissions.”

Professor Watson said it was “very important” that the Government set out how gas, including gas from fracking, was compatible with its forthcoming Emissions Reduction Plan, which will explain how the UK will reduce greenhouse gases by 80 per cent by 2050, as called for in the UK’s fifth carbon budget.

“There are many other major gaps in policy to meet this budget – including, for example, on energy efficiency and crucially, for the role of gas, on carbon capture-and-storage,” he said.

“As Government itself has acknowledged, there are insufficient policies in place to meet the fourth or fifth carbon budgets. The Plan has been delayed, and is now expected next year.”</s>Barack Obama has said the Paris climate deal could prove a “turning point” in the effort to avoid dangerous global warming, after a flurry of commitments by nations pushed the agreement into force.



The climate accord is set to be activated on 4 November after the European Union, Canada, Nepal and India all formally ratified the deal. The latest ratifications mean that 73 nations accounting for nearly 57% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are fully committed to the process, meaning the two key thresholds to the agreement have now been met.

Obama said: “Today is a historic day in the fight to protect our planet for future generations. This gives us the best possible shot to save the one planet we got. With optimism and faith and hope, we are proving it is possible.”

The US president said the Paris agreement will prove a “turning point” in the fight against climate change, should nations fully commit to cutting emissions. The US and China, the world’s two largest emitters, both ratified the agreement in September.

Obama said the deal, which commits countries to ensuring that the average global temperature doesn’t rise 2C above pre-industrial levels, will “open the floodgates for low-carbon innovation at a scale we haven’t seen before”. But he warned that emissions will need to be scaled back even further, along with mooted cutbacks in aviation and HFC pollution, if runaway climate change is to be avoided.

“No nation, not even one as powerful as ours, can solve this on its own – we have to do this together,” he said. “Even if we meet every target, we will only get to part of where we need to go. But this will help delay or avoid the worst consequences of climate change. It’ll help set bolder targets.”

The Paris agreement, struck last year, calls for all 195 signatories to come up with their own voluntary plans to reduce emissions. While the landmark deal is the first commitment by all countries to reduce emissions, the individual pledges are unlikely to be sufficient to stay within the 2C limit, which could be breached as early as 2050, according to recent research.

Separate studies have shown the world is on course for a temperature rise of around 3.5C by the end of the century, based on the emissions cuts promised in Paris. This would cause a range of disastrous environmental consequences, including heatwaves, sea level rise, species extinctions and spread of disease.

There are doubts that the US is on track even to meet its initial promise to cut emissions by 26% to 28% by 2025 by 2005 levels. In a further complication, Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has promised to withdraw the US from the deal should he win power. However, the ratification locks countries into the deal for four years, so an immediate US exit wouldn’t be possible.

But green groups have celebrated the activation of the Paris deal, pointing to the lightening pace of ratification after decades of international wrangling over climate change. United Nations agreements often take years to come into force, with the Paris deal taking less than a year to pass its ratification thresholds.

“The unprecedented speed of the entry into force of the Paris agreement demonstrates that Paris was not a one-off deal, but rather a long-term commitment to climate action,” said Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International.

Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, added: “After years of tireless dedication and work toward an international climate deal, the Paris agreement has finally jumped off the page and into reality.

“Now that the agreement is a reality, we must finally align our global energy and economic policies to meet these goals and end subsidies for outdated fossil fuels, transition to 100 percent clean energy, and stop harmful trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that run counter to the goals of the Paris Agreement.”

Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and a key architect of the Paris deal, said the deal should be met with “unbridled optimism.”

“We now we have our starting signal – this is the “go” toward a low carbon future,” she said. “That future is going to be exciting: ending the dominance of fossil fuels will deliver an abundance of innovation and opportunity for all of us.

“We can deliver cleaner air, healthier cities and a new kind of ‘industrial’ revolution underpinned by technologies that enable us to live a prosperous life within the boundaries our planet can sustain. To achieve that, we must now increase our ambition to ensure the legacy of this moment is sealed as a positive pivot point in history.”</s>The Abe administration should not waste more time in seeking ratification of the Paris Agreement for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. It has now become certain that the international climate accord will enter into force early next month with ratification by more than 60 countries that account for over 55 percent of global emissions. If Japan fails to ratify the pact before it takes effect, the nation will not be able to take part in the initial rounds of making the rules for its implementation. Slow action on the accord by Japan, the world’s fifth-largest emitter, is all the more regrettable since the agreement requires participating countries to do more than what they already committed to when signing the deal.

The landmark deal adopted at the climate change conference in Paris last December sets a target of keeping the rise in global temperatures from pre-industrial levels within 2 degrees Celsius — and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees — and of cutting the man-made emissions of global-warming gases effectively to zero in the latter half of this century. Unlike the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which imposed emissions reduction targets solely on advanced economies, all participants in the Paris accord — both developed and developing nations — will set voluntary goals to cut their emissions. The problem is, the voluntary plans submitted by countries ahead of the accord are deemed insufficient to achieve the goals.

India, which accounts for 4 percent of the world’s emissions, said Sunday it has completed the procedure to ratify the pact — the 62nd country to do so. The European Union has agreed to ratify the accord by Friday. The world’s two largest emitters, China and the United States, have already ratified the pact, and the treaty — which will enter into force once it’s been ratified by at least 55 countries that together account for 55 percent or more of global emissions — is now assured of taking effect by early November. If that happens, the countries that have ratified the pact will likely hold their first meeting during the Nov. 7-18 COP 22 conference of parties to the United Nations climate change framework treaty in Marrakech, Morocco.

That it is taking less than a year for the Paris Agreement to take effect — compared with more than seven spent years before the Kyoto Protocol came into force — seems to reflect a greater sense of crisis and urgency on the part of leaders of the major powers, given that the threat of global warming is already becoming evident today. Some experts warn that the rise in global temperatures from pre-industrial levels could hit 2 degrees by 2050 even if nations comply with the Paris accord, urging the countries to redouble their efforts to cut their emissions.

No such sense of urgency seems to be felt among Japan’s lawmakers or the government. Prodded by the prospect that the Paris Agreement would come into force as early as next month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the Diet last week that the government is ready to submit the pact to the current session of the Diet for prompt ratification. However, the issue does not appear to be a policy priority for his administration. The policy speech that he delivered at the outset of the current session on Sept. 26 did not touch at all on the Paris accord or even climate change. And while the government hurriedly prepares to submit the pact to the Diet, it’s not clear if it can be approved during the current session given the tight schedule of deliberations on other matters such as endorsement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord.

The agreement dictates that a signatory will not be given the voting rights in the making of rules of its implementation until 30 days have passed after it submitted ratification documents to its secretariat. Japan may not be able to join the first meeting of the parties to the treaty except as an observer. To be discussed among the parties will be, for example, rules on the scheme to mutually verify the participating countries’ emissions and the framework for technological and financial assistance to developing countries.

By lagging behind others in the implementation of the agreement, Japan may not only invite the international reputation of a country not serious enough about climate change. Even more worrisome is the lack of discussions on additional steps that Japan should be taking to fight global warming. Before the Paris accord was adopted, Japan vowed to reduce emissions by 26 percent from 2013 levels in 2030. But these commitments by the signatories are not enough to achieve the pact’s goals, and the agreement calls on each participant to review their targets every five years to pursue deeper cuts.

Japan needs to promptly begin discussions on what more steps it can take to curb climate change. While the nation’s committed goal is less ambitious than the targets set by the U.S. and European powers, the government’s energy policy calls for a sizable share of coal-fired thermal power plants as the source of power supply, bucking the worldwide trend for a shift toward low-carbon economy.

Meeting the Paris Agreement’s goal of effectively zero emissions by the latter half of the century will require radical changes in social and economic structures, but discussions for such efforts do not appear to be afoot in this country. The government should seek to promptly ratify and join in implementing the accord, but the process itself will only put this nation, like others, on the starting line of beefing up action on climate change.
The Paris Agreement on climate change which governs greenhouse gas emissions will take effect in November.