UN Paris Agreement: Climate Change Deal Signed By 175 Countries

news.com.au

AUSTRALIA'S lack of follow-through on climate change will leave the Great Barrier Reef "completely cooked" despite it signing the Paris climate deal, the Greens say.
 Federal Environmental Minister Greg Hunt joined leaders from 170 other countries in New York to sign the Paris Agreement to limit global warming by at least two degrees.
Mr Hunt said Australia will beat its Kyoto emission reduction targets by 78 million tonnes and meet a 2030 target of reducing emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels.
"These are some of the highest targets anywhere in the world and certainly on a per capita basis we're right at the top," he told the ABC from New York today.
But Greens Senator Larissa Waters said Australia signing the agreement won't see it avoid warming of three to four degrees if it's not backed up by action.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt. Source: Getty Images

Greens Senator Larissa Waters. Source: AAP

"Unfortunately, Minister Hunt likes to bandy about some figures but Australia has been a laughing stock on the international stage," she told the ABC.
"Our pollution reduction targets are so far below the science and people know that our policies aren't even getting us towards those very low targets."
Senator Waters rejected the government's commitment of a further $11 million on projects to continue improving water quality on the Great Barrier Reef following a study this week showing 93 per cent of the reef was bleached.
She pointed to the Queensland and Federal Government's backing of the Adani coal mine which critics say will further imperil the reef.
"We need to really have a change of policy when it comes to approving every coal mine anyone ever thinks of and instead really fund and support the transition and speed it up to clean-energy," Senator Waters said.

This undated handout photo released on April 20, 2016 by XL Catlin Seaview Survey shows a turtle swimming over bleached coral at Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. Source: AFP

US Secretary of State John Kerry, holding his young granddaughter, joined dozens of world leaders for a signing ceremony that set a record for international diplomacy: Never have so many countries signed an agreement on the first available day.
States that don't sign overnight have a year to do so.
"We are in a race against time," UN secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the gathering.
"The era of consumption without consequences is over."
Many now expect the climate agreement to enter into force long before the original deadline of 2020. Some say it could happen this year.
After signing, countries must formally approve the Paris Agreement through their domestic procedures.

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at the United Nations Signing Ceremony for the Paris Agreement climate change accord. Source: AFP

The United Nations says 15 countries, several of them small island states under threat from rising seas, were doing that overnight by depositing their instruments of ratification.
China, the world's top carbon emitter, announced it will "finalise domestic procedures" to ratify the Paris Agreement before the G20 summit in China in September. Mr Ban immediately welcomed the pledge.
The United States also has said it intends to join the agreement this year.
The world is watching anxiously: Analysts say that if the agreement enters into force before US President Barack Obama leaves office in January, it would be more complicated for his successor to withdraw from the deal because it would take four years to do so under the agreement's rules.
The United States put the deal into economic terms.
"The power of this agreement is what it is going to do to unleash the private sector," Secretary Kerry told the gathering, noting that this year is again shaping up to be the hottest year on record.
Oscar-winning actor and environmental campaigner Leonardo DiCaprio urged leaders on, telling them: "The world is now watching".
"You will either be lauded by future generations or vilified by them," he said.

Leonardo DiCaprio speaks during the Paris Agreement For Climate Change Signing at the United Nations. Source: AFP

DiCaprio urged world leaders to leave fossil fuels "in the ground where they belong" as he told them they are the "last best hope" for saving the planet from the disastrous effects of global warming.
The actor, who is a UN Messenger of Peace with a special focus on climate change, spoke shortly before the leaders began signing the Paris Agreement.
"We can congratulate each other today, but it will mean absolutely nothing" if you return to your countries and don't take action to implement the deal, DiCaprio said.
The agreement will enter into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 per cent of global emissions have formally joined it.
Maros Sefcovic, the energy chief for another top emitter, the 28-nation European Union, has said the EU wants to be in the "first wave" of ratifying countries.
French President Francois Hollande, the first to sign the agreement, said he will ask parliament to ratify it by this summer.
France's environment minister is in charge of global climate negotiations.
"There is no turning back now," Mr Hollande told the gathering.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signs the accord at the United Nations Signing Ceremony for the Paris Agreement climate change accord. Source: AFP

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced that his country would ratify the agreement this year.
The climate ceremony brought together a wide range of states that on other issues might sharply disagree.
North Korea's foreign minister made a rare UN appearance to sign, and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe brought applause when he declared, "Life itself is at stake in this combat. We have the power to win it."
Countries that had not yet indicated they would sign the agreement include some of the world's largest oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Nigeria and Kazakhstan, the World Resources Institute said.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe says life is at stake unless we do something about climate change. Source: AFP

The Paris Agreement, the world's response to hotter temperatures, rising seas and other impacts of climate change, was reached in December as a major breakthrough in UN climate negotiations, which for years were slowed by disputes between rich and poor countries over who should do what.
Under the agreement, countries set their own targets for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
The targets are not legally binding, but countries must update them every five years.
Already, states face pressure to do more. Scientific analyses show the initial set of targets that countries pledged before Paris don't match the agreement's long-term goal to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, compared with pre-industrial times.
Global average temperatures have already climbed by almost 1 degree Celsius. Last year was the hottest on record.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff signs the accord at the United Nations Signing Ceremony for the Paris Agreement climate change accord. Source: AFP

The latest analysis by the Climate Interactive research group shows the Paris pledges put the world on track for 3.5 degrees Celsius of warming.
A separate analysis by Climate Action Tracker, a European group, projected warming of 2.7 degrees Celsius.
Either way, scientists say the consequences could be catastrophic in some places, wiping out crops, flooding coastal areas and melting Arctic sea ice.
"This is not a good deal for our island nations, at least not yet," the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, Nauru President Baron Divavesi Waqa, told the gathering.
"The hardest work starts now."

US Secretary of State John Kerry holds his granddaughter for the signing of the accord at the United Nations Signing Ceremony for the Paris Agreement climate change accord. Source: AFP

As the Paris Agreement moves forward, there is some good news. Global energy emissions, the biggest source of man-made greenhouse gases, were flat last year even though the global economy grew, according to the International Energy Agency.
Still, fossil fuels are used much more widely than renewable sources like wind and solar power.
Friday was chosen for the signing ceremony because it is Earth Day.

World Governments Vow To End Fossil Fuel Era At UN Climate Signing Ceremony

The Guardian - Suzanne Goldenberg | Arthur Neslen

Representatives of more than 170 countries endorse Paris agreement to cut carbon emissions, with France's president saying: 'There is no turning back'

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, holds his granddaughter for the signing of the accord at the United Nations Signing Ceremony for the Paris Agreement climate change accord in New York. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

More than 170 governments declared an end to the fossil fuel era on Friday, using the signing ceremony for the landmark Paris agreement as an occasion to renew their vows to fight climate change.
The outpouring of support – the largest ever single-day turn-out for a signing ceremony – underscored strong international commitment to deliver on the promises made in Paris last December to avoid a climate catastrophe, the leaders said.
"There is no turning back," François Hollande, the French president, told the United Nations assembly.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said signatories to the deal were embracing "a new covenant of the future". Leonardo DiCaprio, a UN climate ambassador, likened efforts against climate change to the campaign to end slavery.
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an indigenous women's leader from Chad, called on countries to following through on their promises. Temperatures in her country were already a blistering 48C (118F), she said, and climate change threatened to obliterate billions spent on development aid over recent decades.
"Climate change is adding to poverty every day," she said.
Friday's gathering was entirely ceremonial, with schoolchildren and brass bands filling out the UN hall, and John Kerry, the secretary of state, toting his granddaughter in his arms when it came his turn to sign the agreement.
But the turnout – including the presence of about 60 presidents and prime ministers – and stirring rhetoric were seen as an important measure of the momentum behind efforts to bring the Paris agreement into force earlier than originally thought, possibly even this year.
Leaders also reaffirmed previous commitments to help poor countries protect their people from climate change.
Early implementation would prevent the drift that set in with the Kyoto protocol in the 1990s and – crucially with Donald Trump's ascendancy in the Republican presidential primaries – impose a four-year delay on any future leaders seeking to exit the agreement.
But as the leaders noted, events on the ground are moving fast. Last year was the hottest year on record – and so were the first three months of this year. Temperatures at the North Pole rose above freezing last December, the depths of the polar night; and temperatures there were 30C (54F) above normal.
"Today is a day to mark and to celebrate the hard work done by so many to win the battle of securing the Paris agreement," Kerry said. "But knowing what we know, this is also a day to recommit ourselves to actually win this war."
On Australia's Great Barrier Reef, some 93% of coral showed evidence of bleaching, because of long-term ocean warming due to carbon emissions, and the El Niño weather phenomenon.
If countries do not make deep emissions cuts by 2020, they will miss their chance to hit the Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5-2C (2.7-3.6F), leaders and campaign groups warned.
Campaign groups called on governments and businesses to follow through on the rhetoric by ramping up emissions cuts, and protecting vulnerable populations from rising seas, extreme temperatures and other effects of climate change.
"The decisions in the Paris agreement now need to be incorporated into government and corporate decisions by breaking free from fossil fuels," Jennifer Morgan, the director of Greenpeace, said. "Nature is telling us that time is running out, and running out fast."
The first hurdle was making the agreement operational by winning approval from 55 countries representing 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
That critical threshold moved closer into reach after the world's biggest climate polluters reiterated their promises to approve the deal – with some committing to a specific time line.
China, the world's biggest climate polluter, said it would formally approve the agreement before the G20 meeting in September. The US and India, the second and third biggest emitters, also reaffirmed their intention to approve the deal this year. Canada's Justin Trudeau said he would present the agreement to approval by parliament next month.
Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, engulfed in a fight for her political survival after being impeached earlier this week, made a personal promise to help bring the agreement into force.
"I take on the commitment to ensure the prompt entering into effect of this agreement in Brazil," she told the UN.
However, the European Union is unlikely to be in a position to join the agreement at an early date.
Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU climate commissioner, admitted that internal processes, under which the individual countries must first sign off on proposals to achieve the common goal for 2030 of a 40% emissions cut measured against 1990 levels, would make it difficult to keep pace.
More climate-concerned governments such as France and Germany are thought likely to move quickly. But there are still concerns about the response that can be expected in Poland and some other central and eastern European countries.
"This will take some time," he said in a statement, "but it will ensure that when we act, we will act on a solid legal basis. And let me assure you: it will be done as soon as possible."
In a pointer to battles ahead, Arias Cañete said that his office was preparing new legislation on renewable energy, electricity markets, energy efficiency and a mid-century low greenhouse gas emissions strategy to be unveiled in 2020.
Fifteen countries – mainly small islands such as Fiji and the Maldives but also Palestine and Somalia – formally joined the agreement on Friday.
The next phase is even more challenging as governments and businesses move to phase out carbon emissions from the global economy – first by targeting economic sectors that were left out of the Paris agreement.
Jonathan Pershing, the State Department climate envoy, told reporters that the US and other countries would now focus on cutting emissions from shipping and aviation, as well as the climate super pollutants, known as HFCs, used in cooling.
"From now we have to ensure that we have a green economic model, one that is no longer based on carbon emissions," Hollande said.

Links

• World leaders hail Paris climate deal as 'major leap for mankind'
• Climate change: UN backs fossil fuel divestment campaign
• John Kerry: climate change is now a security issue
• Obama's climate change envoy: fossil fuels will have to stay in the ground
• Amazon rainforest losing ability to regulate climate, scientist warns
• France promises $1bn for climate change fund at UN summit
• US to put climate change 'front and center' of diplomatic efforts, Kerry vows
• Climate change marches: Kerry cites fight against Ebola and Isis as thousands join protests
• Donald Trump warned against scrapping Paris climate deal

The Paris Agreement: Is Australia Going Far Enough?

The Huffington Post - Emma Brancatisano

Demonstrators from Greenpeace paint their faces white to highlight coral bleaching in Sydney as world leaders join to sign the Paris Agreement in New York. | ASSOCIATED PRESS

A total of 175 countries gathered at the United Nations in New York overnight to sign the The Paris Agreement that was brokered in December last year.
The meeting marked an international push to legally bring the climate change agreement into force. It is the largest number of signatories ever garnered for the opening day of a UN agreement.
The Paris Agreement was widely regarded as 'historic'; the best possible global agreement to curb climate change and slow the pace of global warming. But with great promise comes great responsibility to act. And in the months since, Australia's trajectories are quickly dimming.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt spoke with ABC radio on Saturday from New York. He said Australia has signed the agreement and will immediately begin the process of ratifying it. According to Hunt, Australia is on track to "meet and beat" its emissions reductions targets set out under the agreement.
At home, environmental activists painted in white staged a sombre protest over the plight of Australia's dying reefs. And Cabinet Ministers continue to question the science of climate change.

So, what is it?
The Paris Agreement was signed on December 11, 2015 by 195 nations worldwide. After two weeks of negotiations and word-wrangling at the 21st Conference of the Parties, or COP21, diplomats agreed to a global climate change accord that sets a cap on global warming at "well below" 2 degrees Celsius and an aspirational 1.5 degrees. The end goal? Reaching global net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
"The agreement says we are going to limit pollution, and it outlines our targets moving forward," CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation Kelly O'Shanassy told The Huffington Post Australia.
"Global warming is a global problem and it needs a global solution. The agreement was the first critical step."

CEO of The Australian Conservation Foundation, Kelly O'Shanassy attended the climate change summit in Paris.

The accord was the world's first comprehensive climate agreement to commit all countries to cutting carbon emissions. Signatories were tasked with preparing, maintaining and publishing their own greenhouse gas reduction targets that should be greater than current targets and should "reflect the highest possible ambition". It is partly legally binding and partly voluntary, providing for five-yearly reviews that will assess whether countries are meeting their commitments.
O'Shanassy, who attended the conference, said there were tears of relief when the Paris Agreement was finalised -- but many pointed to the task ahead.
"It was a wonderful experience to be there on the day of the signing. It was really the vulnerable, low-lying nations that pushed it over the line.
"At 1.5 degrees and above, they lose their homes. At 1.5 degrees and above, we lose the Great Barrier Reef... we're already seeing this and we haven't even go to those levels of warming yet. If we don't get on to reducing pollution fast, it is just a piece of paper."
Australia was one of 195 parties to commit to the agreement last December. It will come into force as soon as 55 countries responsible for 55 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases have ratified the accord.
The target date for the agreement to begin is 2020, but momentum is building to ensure the accord enters into force much earlier.

Is Australia on track?
In the months since the Paris Agreement, Australia has traipsed through two of the hottest months ever recorded and an El Nino event that saw localised warming reach higher than 1.5 degrees. And we have seen the devastating results – with 93 percent of Australians reefs now impacted by coral bleaching due to warming oceans.

"We are seeing the impacts in nature of global warming right before our eyes. And yet the ambitions of what we signed up to in Paris are not achievable within the current suite of the Australian government's climate policies," O'Shanassy said.
Australia's current pollution reduction targets sits at a 26 to 28 percent emission reduction target by 2030. Up against global standards this is "very weak".
"If all countries' targets were as weak as Australia's, we would be tracking towards warming of three to four degrees," she said.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the Government's target are one of the highest emissions reductions targets on a per capita basis in the world.
"We beat our Kyoto 1 targets. We're now clearly on track to meet and beat our Kyoto 2 targets and our Paris 2030 targets are strong and ambitious and they have been welcomed and hailed," he told ABC television.
"What they don't tell you is that we will still be one of the highest emitters per capita even after those reductions occurred because they are currently so high," said O'Shanassy.
According to O'Shanassy, the Australian government is purporting a "sustained attack" on renewable energy in Australia, through an 88 percent reduction in investment in 2014 and a weakened Renewable Energy Target.
"By doing all of this, our government has said we are open to business for coal and closed for business for renewables. The market has responded and pollution is increasing."
Greens Deputy Leader and climate change spokesperson Senator Larissa Waters describes the government's track record as "woeful".
"Their actions are flying in the face of commitments made at the conference. We have seen the cutting of the renewable energy targets, the slashing of The Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the continued approval of coal mines," she told Huffpost Australia.
"The government has been ignoring the science and probing their targets."

Moving forward
The government has made a commitment to ratify the Paris Agreement this year if re-elected.
For O'Shanassy, climate policy -- and all scenarios that limit global warming -- must point to a clean energy transformation.
"What we need is to phase out our existing coal plants and replace those with renewable energy and that has to be done carefully and in a planned way," she said.
"We need to make sure there is not an energy disruption and we need to take care of the workers and communities in those coal mining areas."
"A lot of modelling shows that can by and large be achieved by 2030."
The Australian Greens have developed a transition plan to achieve 90 percent renewable energy by this date and phase out fossil fuel power stations with a $1 billion Clean Energy Transition Fund to be overseen by a new government agency, Renew Australia.
The plan proposes an immediate ban on new coal and gas as well as targets to rapidly reduce Australia's climate pollution with a 60 to 80 percent cut by 2030.
"We want to implement pollution reduction targets based on what science is telling us and to speed up that transition to renewable energy," Senator Waters said.
"This is the defining issue of our generation. The fact that many members of parliament are still sceptical about the science is deeply disturbing.
"We are going to put global warming at the front and centre of our campaign this federal election."

Australia Snubbed By 'High-Ambition' Group At Climate Talks In New York

Fairfax - Tom Arup | Adam Morton
Australia was not invited to a meeting of the ''high ambition coalition'' on climate change in New York this week. 

That was then: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop hugs then Marshall Islands minister Tony de Brum at the Paris climate summit. Photo: Andrew McLeish

Nobody likes left being out of the cool gang – especially one they have asked to join.
But that was Australia's fate overnight when it was excluded by a group of countries describing itself as the "high ambition coalition" on climate change, reflecting ongoing wariness about our commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.The apparent snub came as up to 170 countries gathered at the United Nations in New York to formally sign the Paris climate deal reached last December.The high ambition coalition – including heavy-hitters such as the US, Canada, Germany and Brazil – came together in Paris in a bid to bolster the strength of a global climate agreement and head-off moves by countries such as India and Saudi Arabia to water down parts of the deal.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says Australia was invited to join the climate coalition. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Australia was not initially involved, prompting claims other countries did not believe it was serious about being a player at the talks. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop dismissed this, later saying it had been invited to join by the European Union and had accepted. She hit back at criticism on social media.But Australia, which is being represented by Environment Minister Greg Hunt in New York for the signing, was not invited to the first meeting of the group since Paris, which was held on Friday morning Australia time.It is understood Australia has sought ongoing involvement in the coalition, and had reached out to the countries involved through diplomatic channels, but had so far been rebuffed.
A diplomatic source said of the New York get-together: "They [Australia] were definitely aware of the meeting. There is definitely ongoing interest."
Asked why Australia had not been invited, another diplomatic source said it had not been involved in the main work of the coalition in Paris.
Erwin Jackson, the Climate Institute's deputy chief executive, said it was likely that Australia's weak climate policies had led to it being left out.
"We've got a 2030 target consistent with 3 to 4 degrees of global warming and we've got a domestic policy framework that has seen emissions increase from the electricity sector," Mr Jackson said.
"It is difficult to be in a high ambition coalition if you are a low ambition country."
Fairfax Media asked Ms Bishop's office why Australia had not been invited. A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman replied, saying the government was pleased to have joined the high ambition coalition at Paris where "together we sent a strong signal that a broad range of countries were committed to an ambitious outcome".
"Australia remains committed to working constructively with all parties to take action on climate change and we will look to ratify the Paris agreement as soon as possible," the spokeswoman said.
The Paris agreement comes into force once 55 countries, representing at least 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, ratify the deal. Mr Hunt told the ABC on Wednesday that he hoped that Australian would ratify the deal this year.
Australia is not the only country left off the invitation list for the New York meeting. Japan, which sought to join the coalition late in Paris and got as far as being included on a formal membership list that was circulated following the meeting and did not include Australia, also wasn't invited.
It is understood the New York meeting discussed how the countries involved would start translating the Paris deal – including a goal of keeping global warming to within 1.5 degrees of pre-industrial levels – into practice back home. It also heard from civil society and business leaders, including former US vice-president and climate change campaigner Al Gore.
A spokeswoman for Mr Hunt said ahead of the signing ceremony Australia had attended an oceans roundtable, a Canada-led event with countries looking to ratify the Paris agreement quickly and a bilateral meeting with the United Arab Emirates to promote renewable energy investment.