Historic climate pact enters into force

The Ile Saint-Louis is illuminated with the lettering reading ‘The Paris accord is done’ in Paris on November 4, 2016, to celebrate the first day of the application of the Paris Agreement on combating global warming. Patrick Kovarik / AFPShow less

Paris // A pact to stave off extreme global warming entered into force Friday after being ratified in record time since it was agreed upon in the French capital last year.

The Paris Agreement is the first pact to bind all the world’s nations, rich and poor, to a commitment to cap average global warming by curbing emissions of greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil and gas.

“Humanity will look back on November 4, 2016, as the day that countries of the world shut the door on inevitable climate disaster,” the UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa said.

While cause for celebration, “it is also a moment to look ahead with sober assessment and renewed will over the task ahead”, she said.

This meant drastically cutting emissions in the short term, “certainly in the next 15 years,” Ms Espinosa pointed out a day after a UN report said current trends were steering the world towards climate “tragedy”.

By 2030, the UN Environment Programme said, annual greenhouse gas emissions will exceed the desired level of 42 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by 12bn to 14bn tonnes.

The 2014 level was about 52.7bn tonnes.

2016 is on track to become the hottest year on record, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere passed an ominous milestone in 2015.

On Friday, the Eiffel Tower in Paris as well as government and public buildings in Marrakesh, New Delhi, Sao Paulo and Adelaide, among others, were to be lit up in green to mark the entry into force of the climate pact.

After years of complex and divisive negotiations, a deal was finally endorsed in the French capital last December.

The pact undertakes to hold global warming to “well below” 2°C over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, and to strive for 1.5°C.

Countries submitted voluntary, non-binding carbon-cutting goals towards this goal.

The pact had to be ratified by 55 parties to the UN’s climate convention (UNFCCC), representing 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions to take effect.

It passed the threshold last month, and now has ratifications from 94 of the 197 UNFCCC parties.

“For veterans of UN climate talks, who for years saw little or no progress on tackling climate change, the way in which Paris has supercharged action is just astonishing,” said Richard Black of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, an advocacy group in London.

The Abu Dhabi-based International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) welcomed the entry into force of the climate pact, saying its speedy ratification sent “a clear signal that governments are prepared to take urgent, decisive action”.

“Renewable energy is central to that action, as reflected by its inclusion in the nationally determined contributions of nearly 150 governments,” said Irena director general Adnan Amin.

However, the US Republican nominee Donald Trump has cast doubts over the agreement by threatening to cancel Washington’s participation if he is elected president on November 8.

But with or without the US, the pact “will not deliver the safe world we need” without being drastically strengthened, said Mohamed Adow of Christian Aid, which represents poor people’s interests in the climate forum.

Next week, negotiators will gather in Marrakesh on Monday for a follow-up to the Paris meeting, a chance to start putting political undertakings into practice.

“The timetable is pressing because globally, greenhouse gas emissions which drive climate change and its impacts are not falling,” said Ms Espinosa.

As the pact came into effect, oil majors including Saudi Aramco, Royal Dutch Shell and Total on Friday pledged to invest $1bn in carbon-reducing technologies.

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative also includes BP , Eni, Repsol, Statoil, CNPC, Pemex and Reliance Industries.

The 10 firms said they would first focus on speeding up deployment of carbon capture, use and storage technology and reducing methane emissions that can leak from pipelines.

* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting from Reuters