Earth Day finally means something: Nations sign climate deal, vow to speed up implementation
So much for Earth Day just being about symbolic actions.
At the United Nations on Friday, representatives of 175 nations came together to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change, setting a record for the most signatories to any international agreement on the first day it was open for signature.
You May Also Like
According to calculations from the World Resources Institute, these countries together represent 93 percent of the world's manmade greenhouse gases.
The Paris Agreement, which was negotiated in December, would for the first time commit all countries of the world to taking action to reduce their emissions of global warming pollutants.
It also contains provisions for developed nations to aid developing countries in transitioning to cleaner technologies, such as solar and wind power.
The agreement is viewed as both a milestone in international environmental diplomacy and as a starting point to rein in global emissions of planet-warming emissions.
In an interview with Mashable, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said the agreement will help to catalyze the development and deployment of clean energy technologies and put us on the road to "deep decarbonization," which he said "clearly would be required to meet the kinds of targets that we have put forward."
"... It’s a big first step," he said.
"We feel that a major part of the increasing ambition over time will come from continued technological innovation that keeps driving down the costs of green energy technologies," Moniz said.
The record number of signatures on Friday demonstrates the continued momentum behind climate action in the wake of the Paris Agreement, which itself was the product of more than two decades of painstaking negotiations.
"Today’s events at the United Nations are a major step, in my view, on the road to lower carbon emissions and lower global warming in the future years," Moniz said.
"Today, the significance is that the vast majority of countries, in effect, are saying, 'Yes we are going to address our climate responsibilities. We are going to execute on the pledges made in Paris.'"
The Paris Agreement will not enter into force until at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions formally "join" the agreement.
This means that they must either ratify it within their legislature, or as is the case in the U.S., go through procedures within the Executive Branch, due to opposition within Congress.
Importantly, one of the main focuses of the meetings on Friday was to figure out a way to speed up the implementation of the agreement in light of a relentless wave of dire climate news.
The first three months of 2016 have been the warmest such period on record globally, following the warmest year.
New studies have been published that suggest sea level rise projections from just a few years ago were too conservative. Meanwhile, record warm oceans are sickening coral reefs from Australia to Florida, in some cases permanently killing these biodiversity hot spots.
At the U.N., China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, committed to joining the Paris Agreement before the next Group of 20 major industrialized nations in September, and urged other G-20 members to do so.
The U.S., which is the second-largest emitter, has also said it would join the agreement this year, as has Canada.
At the U.N., representatives from a group of countries ranging from Fiji to Norway were meeting with other nations to discuss how to bring the agreement into force this year. Doing so would potentially jump-start emissions cuts, and improve the odds that the agreement's temperature targets would be met.
"The U.N. had previously said there was an anticipation of the agreement coming into force by 2020," Moniz said. "They are now saying, 'Wow, it looks like we’re going to get there earlier, 2018.' I still hold out hope that we might even beat that target."
Topics United Nations
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
