October 5, 2016 | No Comments
President Barack Obama on Wednesday hailed the international climate deal that is now set to go into force, promising it “will delay or avoid some of the worst depredations of climate change,” even as he said more work would be needed after he leaves office.
The European Union submitted formal paperwork to ratify the deal with the United Nations on Wednesday, putting the agreement on track to take effect in 30 days. The deal reached in Paris last year includes commitments from virtually every country on earth to limit carbon emissions scientists say are causing climate change.
“This gives us a shot to save the one planet we’ve got,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday afternoon.
The president praised his administration’s years of work to negotiate the international agreement.
“It took a long time to reach this point,” he said. “One of the reasons I ran for this office was to make America a leader in this issue.”
A senior administration official told reporters earlier this week that getting the agreement into force this year was “not expected or anticipated, even among those people who work on climate.”
The deal goes into effect 30 days after 55 countries responsible for 55 percent of global emissions ratify it, a threshold that was crossed with the EU’s ratification this week. The U.S., China and India have already formally joined the agreement.
Obama committed to reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions at least 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, and other nations submitted their own pledges as part of the deal.