Obama: Historic pact could mark ‘turning point’ for global warming

President Barack Obama on Saturday praised the “strong” and historic” accord hammered out in Paris, which he said could mark “a turning point for the world” on climate change.

“The Paris agreement establishes the enduring framework the world needs to solve the climate crisis,” the US leader said at the White House. “It creates the mechanism, the architecture, for us to continually tackle this problem in an effective way.

Obama said the leaders from nearly 200 nations working in Paris “met the moment” in agreeing to what is being described as the most ambitious climate change agreement in history. He said the world can be more confident this planet is going to be in better shape for the next generation.

“Together we’ve shown what is possible when the world stands as one,” Obama said.

Obama said the agreement is not perfect, but it sets a framework the world needs to continue tackling global warming in an effective way. He said the agreement will contain periodic reviews and assessments to ensure that countries meet their commitments. As technology advances, targets can be updated over time. The agreement also calls for supporting the most vulnerable nations as they pursue cleaner economic growth.

“In short, this agreement will mean less of the carbon pollution that threatens our planet and more of the jobs and economic growth driven by low-carbon investments,” Obama said.

The climate talks have generated opposition from Republicans who control Congress. They say Obama’s commitment to reduce emissions from US power plants would cost thousands of American jobs and raise electricity costs.

“We can expect the administration to cite this ‘agreement’ as their excuse for establishing emission targets for every sector of the US economy not only including utilities, but petroleum refining, all manufacturing, agriculture and others,” said Sen. James Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader, said climate change poses one of the the greatest threats the world has ever known, and that no country acting alone can stem the tide.

“The time to act is now,” Reid said.

In a landmark move, 195 nations agreed Saturday evening to adopt an historic pact to halt global warming that for the first time asks all countries to reduce or rein in their greenhouse gas emissions.

The countries had been negotiating the pact for four years after earlier attempts to reach such a deal failed.

In the “Paris agreement,” countries commit to keeping average global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100, a key demand of poor countries ravaged by rising sea levels and other effects of climate change.

They are also committed to limiting the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100.

Nonetheless, the pact doesn’t have any mechanism to punish countries that don’t or can’t contribute toward that goal.