US praises "most ambitious" climate change agreement

Terming the adoption of climate change deal as the "most ambitious climate change agreement in history", the US has said its adoption establishes a long term, durable global framework to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"This is huge: Almost every country in the world just signed on to the Paris Agreement on climate change-thanks to American leadership," US President Barack Obama said in a tweet.
White House in a statement, said more than 190 countries came together to adopt the most ambitious climate change agreement in history.
"The Paris Agreement establishes a long term, durable global framework to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions," it said.

For the first time, all countries commit to putting forward successive and ambitious, nationally determined climate targets and reporting on their progress towards them using a rigorous, standardised process of review, the White House noted.
Noting that tackling climate change will require shifting global investment flows towards clean energy, forest protection, and climate-resilient infrastructure, the White House said developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable, will need support from the global community as they pursue clean and resilient growth.

The Paris Agreement makes real progress on this front by providing a strong, long-term market signal that the world is locking in a low-carbon future, and giving confidence that existing financial commitments will be met, it said.

"We are already making strong progress towards meeting the existing goal to mobilise USD 100 billion from a wide variety of sources, including both public and private, by 2020," the White House said.
"The Paris outcome provides further confidence that this goal will be met and that climate finance will continue to flow," it added.
The deal provides strong assurance to developing countries that they will be supported as they pursue clean and climate resilient growth, it said.
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This new global framework lays the foundation for countries to work together to put the world on a path to keeping global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius and sets an ambitious vision to go even farther than that, it added.

"This Agreement sends a strong signal to the private sector that the global economy is moving towards clean energy, and that through innovation and ingenuity, we can achieve our climate objectives while creating new jobs, raising standards of living and lifting millions out of poverty," it said.
The Paris Agreement is also the culmination of a broader effort by nations, businesses, cities, and citizens to reorient the global economy to a path of low-carbon growth - progress that will accelerate as a result of the Agreement's provisions on mitigation ambition, transparency, and climate finance.
It also acknowledges that in order to meet that target, countries should aim to peak greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible.

The Agreement moves beyond dividing the world into outdated categories of developed and developing countries and instead directs all parties to prepare, communicate and maintain successive and ambitious nationally determined climate targets, the White House statement said.
Under the Agreement, all countries will communicate their climate targets every five years, starting in 2020.
Targets must be submitted 9-12 months before they are finalised, creating time for other countries and civil society to seek clarity about the targets submitted, it said.
This durable, long term framework will drive greater climate ambition as technologies improve and circumstances change, the White House said.

To help inform further domestic and global efforts, the Agreement puts in place a mechanism to assess collective progress on global mitigation action using the best available science.
This process will begin in 2018 and occur every five years to help inform countries' future targets and strategies.
The mitigation components of the Agreement, combined with a broad push on innovation and technology, will help significantly scale up energy investments over the coming years - investments that will accelerate cost reductions for renewable energy and other low-carbon solutions, it said.
This set of actions will create a mutually reinforcing cycle in which enhanced mitigation increases investment and enhanced investment allows additional mitigation by driving down costs, it added.

The Paris Agreement establishes a robust transparency system to help make sure that all countries are living up to their commitments.
These steps include putting in place an enhanced transparency system for all countries, requiring countries to report on greenhouse gas inventories, requiring countries to report on mitigation progress and establishing a technical review process with agreed upon standards, it said.
A landmark climate change deal was tonight clinched with the approval of India, China and the US, after days of tough negotiations.