The momentous Paris climate change agreement is set to take effect on November 4, after an alliance of the planet’s largest polluters and small island countries affected by rising oceans pushed things past a culminating point on Wednesday.

The news was met with applause from world leaders. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the solid international support as “a testament for the urgency of action,” while United States President Barack Obama heralded the news as “a turning point for our planet,” the Washington Post reports.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq announced Wednesday that the European Union and ten other countries – Austria, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Malta, Nepal, Portugal, and Slovakia – submitted their instruments of ratification on Wednesday. The percentage of emissions these countries account for in total surpassed the 55% threshold necessary for the treaty to take effect, Haq said.

The agreement will take effect 30 days after 55 countries that are responsible for at least 55% of the world’s greenhouse gasses have adopted it. As of Tuesday, 62 countries had agreed, but they had only accounted for 52% of emissions.

The United Nations website declared that as of Wednesday, 73 of the 197 countries in the treaty that account for 56.87% of global emissions have deposited their instruments of ramification.

The Paris agreement holds participating countries, rich and poor alike, to take action and address the rise in global temperatures that are currently raising sea levels, melting ice caps and glaciers, and rainfall patterns. The agreement mandates nations to present their respective plans on how to reduce emissions to limit global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius.

The goals set out are not legally binding, but the treaty does entail that countries report on their emissions and progress on achieving the goals set out last year in the plans they submitted. The countries are likewise required to maintain these programs, update them every five years and take measure to implement their goals.

The agreement was ratified by consensus on December 12, 2015, and has taken off in what experts believe to be a record speed for international negotiations, highlighting the urgency that global warming poses and the need to seal the deal before Ban and Obama leave office.

The next UN climate conference will begin on Nov. 7 in Marrakech, Morroco, where the first Conference of Parties to the Paris agreement will take place. </s> European nations, Canada, Bolivia and Nepal boosted official backing for the 2015 Paris Agreement to countries representing more than 55 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions, as needed for implementation.

By Thursday, 74 countries or parties to the U.N. climate change convention had formally joined the Paris Agreement, adding up to nearly 60 percent of global emissions, a U.N. website showed.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Wednesday "a historic day in the fight to protect our planet for future generations".

"If we follow through on the commitments that this Paris agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet," he said.

Work will start at U.N. climate talks in Morocco next month to hammer out the rules for putting the accord into practice.

Here is a selection of comments on the agreement's entry into force from top officials and climate change experts:

"Today it is crystal clear that we have finally woken up. We have learned from the false starts of the past, and we are now - finally - on the path to protecting the future for our children, our grandchildren and generations to come." Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Secretary-General: "Now we must move from words to deeds and put Paris into action. We need all hands on deck - every part of society must be mobilised to reduce emissions and help communities adapt to inevitable climate impacts."

"Entry into force bodes well for the urgent, accelerated implementation of climate action that is now needed to realise a better, more secure world and to support also the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals." Mohamed Adow, senior climate advisor, Christian Aid:

"The speed at which the Paris Agreement has come into force has been remarkable. But we now need to see tangible actions to follow just as quickly. As Hurricane Matthew leaves destruction across the Caribbean, we're reminded that our climate continues to undergo rapid change and we are continuing to pollute it." Wolfgang Jamann, CEO and secretary general, CARE International:

To see the benefits of the Paris Agreement, "we need to keep the momentum, and quickly step up actions to cut emissions by shifting away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Governments need to rapidly improve the climate resilience of their most vulnerable and marginalised populations especially women and girls. Otherwise the agreement will be an empty shell, and the consequences will continue to be devastating for millions around the world." Heather Coleman, climate change manager, Oxfam America:

"While countries have all pledged to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, the collective commitments made are still not enough to prevent dangerous climate change. Countries need to implement and scale up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to a clean, resilient economy.

Oxfam estimates that the communities most vulnerable to feeling the effects of climate change are only receiving a fraction of the money that rich countries pledged to adaptation." Jennifer Morgan, executive director, Greenpeace International:

"Now that a truly global binding climate agreement is in place, governments should have the confidence to not only meet but also beat their national targets and provide support to the poorest countries." Andrew Steer, president and CEO, World Resources Institute:

"With the agreement in full force, countries can shift their focus from commitment to action.

We must create more liveable, low-carbon cities and expand the supply of land and forests for carbon storage. We must slash food loss and waste, a major source of emissions and a travesty for people who lack enough food. And, we must continue to work at all levels - global, national, cities and communities - to build the political will for this transformation."

"The entry (into force) of the Paris climate agreement represents a turning point in the fight against climate change: the era of fossil fuels is finally coming to an end. Now the real work begins. The only way to meet the 1.5 or 2°C target (for global temperature rise) is to keep fossil fuels in the ground. The fossil fuel industry's current 'drill and burn' business plan is completely incompatible with this agreement." Steve Howard, chief sustainability officer, IKEA Group:

"The Paris agreement represents a turning point for business. The certainty of ever-stronger policies to reduce emissions creates clarity and unlocks opportunities for developing products, services and operations for a low-carbon economy. We are only at the beginning, but the pace at which countries have been ratifying the agreement shows that the policy leadership is there to achieve real change. Now we need to work together for a rapid transition to a future built on clean, renewable energy." (Reporting by Megan Rowling @meganrowling; editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org) </s> UN Climate Change News, Katowice, 15 December – Governments have adopted a robust set of guidelines for implementing the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The implementation of the agreement will benefit people from all walks of life, especially the most vulnerable.

The agreed ‘Katowice Climate Package’ is designed to operationalize the climate change regime contained in the Paris Agreement. Under the auspices of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, it will promote international cooperation and encourage greater ambition.

The guidelines will promote trust among nations that all countries are playing their part in addressing the challenge of climate change.

The President of COP24, Mr. Michal Kurtyka of Poland, said: “All nations have worked tirelessly. All nations showed their commitment. All nations can leave Katowice with a sense of pride, knowing that their efforts have paid off. The guidelines contained in the Katowice Climate Package provide the basis for implementing the agreement as of 2020”.

The Katowice package includes guidelines that will operationalize the transparency framework.

It sets out how countries will provide information about their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that describe their domestic climate actions. This information includes mitigation and adaptation measures as well as details of financial support for climate action in developing countries.

The package also includes guidelines that relate to:
• None The process for establishing new targets on finance from 2025 onwards to follow-on from the current target of mobilizing USD 100 billion per year from 2020 to support developing countries
• None How to conduct the Global Stocktake of the effectiveness of climate action in 2023
• None How to assess progress on the development and transfer of technology

The UN’s Climate Chief, Ms. Patricia Espinosa said: “This is an excellent achievement! The multilateral system has delivered a solid result. This is a roadmap for the international community to decisively address climate change”.

“The guidelines that delegations have been working on day and night are balanced and clearly reflect how responsibilities are distributed amongst the world’s nations”, she said.

“They incorporate the fact that countries have different capabilities and economic and social realities at home, while providing the foundation for ever increasing ambition”, she added.

The agreed guidelines mean that countries can now establish the national systems that are needed for implementing the Paris Agreement as of 2020. The same will be done at the international level.

Functioning together, these systems will ensure that nations can act in an atmosphere of trust and assess progress of their climate actions.

“While some details will need to be finalised and improved over time, the system is to the largest part place”, Ms. Espinosa said.

The main issues still to be resolved concern the use of cooperative approaches, as well as the sustainable development mechanism, as contained in the Paris Agreement’s article 6. These would allow countries to meet a part of their domestic mitigation goals through the use of so-called “market mechanisms”.

Market mechanisms provide flexible instruments for reducing the costs of cutting emissions, such as carbon markets.

Here, the Paris Agreement recognizes the need for global rules to safeguard the integrity of all countries’ efforts.

These global rules are important to ensure that each tonne of emissions released into the atmosphere is accounted for.

In this way, progress towards the emission limitation goals of the Paris Agreement can be accurately measured.

“From the beginning of the COP, it very quickly became clear that this was one area that still required much work and that the details to operationalize this part of the Paris Agreement had not yet been sufficiently explored”, explained Ms. Espinosa.

“After many rich exchanges and constructive discussions, the greatest majority of countries were willing to agree and include the guidelines to operationalize the market mechanisms in the overall package”, she said.

“Unfortunately, in the end, the differences could not be overcome”.

Because of this, countries have agreed to finalise the details for market mechanisms in the coming year in view of adopting them at the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP25).

The Fiji-led Talanoa Dialogue, a year-long inclusive dialogue around ambition as it relates to the Paris Agreement, concluded at COP24, with the Global warming of 1.5C report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a major input.

“As the decision adopted indicates, there is a clear recognition of the IPCC’s role in providing scientific input to inform countries in strengthening their response to the threat of climate change”, Ms. Espinosa underlined.

“I thank all experts for their hard work and important contribution to the IPCC’s work”, she added.

The final High-Level session in Katowice resulted in the Talanoa Call for Action, which calls upon all countries and stakeholders to act with urgency.

Countries are encouraged to factor the outcome of the dialogue into efforts to increase their ambition and to update their nationally determined contributions, which detail nations’ climate actions, in 2020.

A High-Level stock-taking of actions taken before 2020 gave countries the opportunity to assess their current level of ambition. Another stock-taking is planned for 2019.

“While there are clearly gaps that remain, the stock-take of actions taken before 2020 and the Talanoa Dialogue have clearly shown that the world has built a strong foundation for climate action under the Paris Agreement”, said Ms. Espinosa.

Many developed countries pledged financial support to enable developing countries to act. This is especially important for the replenishment of the Green Climate Fund.

Countries have sent significant positive signals towards GCF’s first formal replenishment, with Germany and Norway announcing that they would double their contributions.

The engagement of multilateral development banks (MDBs), international organisations, businesses, investors and civil society at COP24 helped to build the political will towards the outcome in Katowice.

Many made key announcements, that were critical to build momentum. These include:
• None The World Bank’s pledge of $200 billion in climate action funding for the period 2021-2025;
• None The MDBs announcement to align their activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement;
• None The commitment by fifteen international organizations to make their operations climate neutral;
• None The announcement by the C40 Cities coalition, which includes cities across the globe, to work with the IPCC to identify how the Global Warming of 1.5C report can apply to cities’ climate actions.

Many more announcements were made and inspiring examples of climate action showcased at the Global Climate Action High-level events (For more information, see here).

The next United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place in Chile and consultations will provide clarity on the city and exact date of the conference in due course.

With 197 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of all agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.

For more information please contact:

Follow UNFCCC on Twitter: @UNFCCC| español: @CMNUCC| | Francais: @CCNUCC | Deutsch: @UNKlima,

 UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa on Twitter: @PEspinosaC

 UNFCCC on Facebook: facebook.com/UNclimatechange

 UNFCCC on LinkedIn: UNFCCC

 UNFCCC on Instagram: @UNFCCC </s> (UPDATED) But environmental groups say the rulebook lacked the bold ambition needed to protect states already dealing with the severe effects of climate change

KATOWICE, Poland (UPDATED) – Nations on Sunday, December 16, struck a deal to breathe life into the landmark 2015 Paris climate treaty after marathon United Nations (UN) talks that failed to match the ambition the world's most vulnerable countries need to avert dangerous global warming.

Delegates from nearly 200 states finalized a common rule book designed to deliver the Paris goals of limiting global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius. (READ: Fighting climate change: What is the Paris Agreement?)

"Putting together the Paris agreement work program is a big responsibility," said COP24 president Michal Kurtyka as he gavelled through the deal after talks in Poland that ran deep into overtime.

"It has been a long road. We did our best to leave no one behind," he added.

But states already dealing with devastating floods, droughts, and extreme weather made worse by climate change said the package agreed in the mining city of Katowice lacked the bold ambition to cut emissions the world needed.

Egyptian ambassador Wael Aboulmagd, chair of the developing nations G77 plus China negotiating bloc, said the rule book saw the "urgent adaptation needs of developing countries relegated to a second-class status."

Executive director of Greenpeace Jennifer Morgan said: "We continue to witness an irresponsible divide between the vulnerable island states and impoverished countries pitted against those who would block climate action or who are immorally failing to act fast enough."

The final decision text was repeatedly delayed as negotiators sought guidelines that could ward off the worst threats posed by the heating planet while protecting the economies of rich and poor nations alike. (READ: [OPINION] What's at stake for the Philippines at COP24)

"Without a clear rulebook, we won't see how countries are tracking, whether they are actually doing what they say they are doing," Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna told AFP.

At their heart, negotiations were about how each nation funds action to mitigate and adapt to climate change, as well as how those actions are reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has recently backed down on anti-pollution fuel tax hikes in the face of country-wide "yellow vest" protests, said France must "show the way" as he welcomed the progress made at the talks.

"The international community remains committed to the fight against climate change," he tweeted on Sunday.

"Congratulations to the UN, scientists, NGOs (non-governmental organizations),, and all negotiators. France and Europe must show the way. The fight goes on," he said.

Developing nations had wanted more clarity from richer ones over how the future climate fight will be funded and pushed for so-called "loss and damage" measures.

This would see richer countries giving money now to help deal with the effects of climate change many vulnerable states are already experiencing.

Another contentious issue was the integrity of carbon markets, looking ahead to the day when the patchwork of distinct exchanges – in China, the Europe Union, parts of the United States – may be joined up in a global system.

The Paris Agreement calls for setting up a mechanism to guard against practices, such as double counting emissions savings, that could undermine such a market.

A major sticking point, delegates eventually agreed on Saturday, December 15, to kick the issue down the road until next year.

One veteran observer told AFP that Poland's presidency at COP24 had left many countries out of the process and presented at-risk nations with a "take it or leave it" deal.

Progress had "been held up by Brazil, when it should have been held up by the small islands. It's tragic."

One of the largest disappointments for countries of all wealths and sizes was the lack of ambition to reduce emissions shown in the final COP24 text.

Most nations wanted the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to form a key part of future planning.

It highlighted the need to slash carbon pollution by nearly half before 2030 in order to hit the 1.5C target.

But the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Kuwait objected, leading to watered-down wording.

The final statement from the Polish COP24 presidency welcomed "the timely conclusion" of the report and invited "parties to make use of it" – hardly the ringing endorsement many nations had called for.

"There's been a shocking lack of response to the 1.5 report," Greenpeace's Morgan, told AFP.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who made 3 trips to Katowice over the course of the talks, said the world's climate fight was just beginning.

"From now on my five priorities will be: Ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition," he said in a message read out by UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa.

With the political climate process sputtering on well into its 3rd decade as emissions rise remorselessly, activists have stepped up grassroots campaigns of civil disobedience to speed up action.

"We are not a one-off protest, we are a rebellion," a spokesman for the Extinction Rebellion movement, which disrupted at least one ministerial event at the COP, told AFP.

"We are organising for repeated disruption, and we are targeting our governments, calling for the system change needed to deal with the crisis that we are facing," the spokesman added. – Rappler.com </s> UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The landmark Paris agreement on climate change will enter into force on Nov. 4, after being pushed past a key threshold Wednesday by a coalition of the world’s largest polluters and small island nations threatened by rising seas.

President Barack Obama hailed the news as “a turning point for our planet,” and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the agreement’s strong international support a “testament for the urgency of action.” Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech, called it: “A moment of bright hope in the increasingly discouraging landscape of climate science.”

U.N. Spokesman Farhan Haq said the EU, Canada and Nepal would deposit their instruments of ratification Wednesday, edging the percentage of emissions by ratifying countries past the 55 percent threshold needed for the treaty to take effect.

“I am delighted to announce that today the Paris Agreement will cross the second and final threshold needed for entry into force, and will enter into force on 4 November 2016,” Ban said in a statement issued from Europe. “Global momentum for the Paris Agreement to enter into force in 2016 has been remarkable. What once seemed unthinkable is now unstoppable. ”

The deal takes effect 30 days after 55 countries, accounting for at least 55 percent of global emissions, have adopted it. Sixty-two countries had done so as of Tuesday but they accounted only for about 52 percent of emissions.

A U.N. website said that as of Wednesday afternoon 73 of the 197 parties to the treaty, accounting for 56.87 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, have deposited their instruments of ratification.

Obama welcomed the news with a special address in the Rose Garden.

“Today, the world meets the moment,” Obama said. “And if we follow through on the commitments that this Paris agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet.”

The Paris agreement commits rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns. It requires governments to present national plans to reduce emissions to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

While the targets in the agreement are not legally binding, the treaty does require countries to report on emissions and their progress on reaching the goals in the national climate plans they submitted to the U.N. The countries are also required to maintain those plans, update them every five years and to pursue measures to implement their stated goals.

“It’s clearly a momentous moment in terms of global action on climate change,” said David Waskow, international climate director at World Resources Institute. “This has been much more rapid than anticipated and demonstrates political support for the agreement.”

The accord, which was adopted by consensus on Dec. 12, 2015, has entered into force at what is considered record speed for international diplomacy, reflecting a sense of urgency in the fight against global warming and a desire to seal the deal before Ban and Obama leave office.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton supports the accord, while Republican Donald Trump opposes it.

International momentum had been building to ensure that the deal could enter force before the next U.N. climate conference, which starts Nov. 7 in Marrakech, Morocco.

Morocco’s Ambassador of Multilateral Negotiations Aziz Mekouar said with the treaty entering into force Marrakech will now host the first Conference of Parties to the Paris agreement.

“Last year, it was an historic event,” Mekouar said, referring to the conference where the agreement was first adopted. “This year, it’s even more of an historic event.”

Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences at Princeton University, warned, however, that there’s still a long road ahead.

“There’s a lot of hard work ahead to fulfill the main Paris goal, avoiding dangerous climate change. Without focused efforts starting now, we are not going to avoid falling over a very steep cliff,” Oppenheimer said in an email.

Associated Press Writers Nancy Benac and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report. </s> Nearly 200 nations overcame political divisions on Saturday to agree on rules for implementing a landmark global climate deal, but critics say it is not ambitious enough to prevent the dangerous effects of global warming.

READ MORE: World leaders gather for ‘impossible’ task of finalizing Paris climate agreement

After two weeks of talks in the Polish city of Katowice, nations finally reached consensus on a more detailed framework for the 2015 Paris Agreement which aims to limit a rise in average world temperatures to “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

“It is not easy to find agreement on a deal so specific and technical. Through this package you have made a thousand little steps forward together. You can feel proud,” Polish president of the talks, Michal Kurtyka, told delegates.

After he struck the gavel to signal agreement had been reached, ministers joined him on the stage, hugging and laughing in signs of relief after the marathon talks.

WATCH: ‘We are off-track, we need more ambition’ on climate change action, says U.N.’s chief

Before the talks started, many expected that the deal would not be as robust as is needed. The unity which underpinned the Paris talks has fragmented and U.S. President Donald Trump intends to pull his country – one of the world’s biggest emitters – out of the pact.

Still, exhausted ministers managed to bridge a series of divides to produce a 156-page rulebook – which is broken down into themes, such as how countries will report and monitor their national pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions and update their emissions plans.

However, an eight-page decision framework text was criticized by some countries and green groups for failing to urge increased ambitions on emissions cuts sufficiently to curb rising temperatures.

READ MORE: Donald Trump slams Paris Agreement in tweet commenting on French riots

“The majority of the rulebook for the Paris Agreement has been created, which is something to be thankful for,” said Mohamed Adow, international climate lead at Christian Aid.

“But the fact countries had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line shows that some nations have not woken up to the urgent call of the IPCC report,” he added.

A U.N.-commissioned report by the IPCC in October warned that keeping the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5C would need “unprecedented changes” in every aspect of society.

READ MORE: New U.N. report on climate change carries life-or-death warning

Last week, Saudi Arabia, the Unites States, Russia and Kuwait refused to use the word “welcome” in association with the findings of the report.

The decision text now merely expresses gratitude for the work on the report, welcomes its timely completion and invites parties to use the information in it.

For many low-lying states and islands who are at risk from rising sea levels, this is not strong enough but had to be accepted grudgingly in exchange for other trade-offs.

WATCH: We are confident ‘without question’ to reach Paris Agreement, says Liberals

“There should be a direct link between the findings of the report and the specific actions that would underpin ambition both in terms of action and finance,” Simon Stiell, Grenada’s environment minister, told Reuters.

“The challenges will be with some of the bigger players in terms of stepping up to their responsibilities and what is required to truly operationalise the Paris Agreement,” he added.

At the eleventh hour, ministers managed to break a deadlock between Brazil and other countries over the accounting rules for the monitoring of carbon credits, deferring a bulk of that discussion to next year. </s> India had ratified the Paris climate agreement on on October 2, becoming the 62nd country.

The Paris Agreement on climate change will enter into force on November 4 as enough countries have signed onto the landmark accord to bring it to the emissions threshold that will trigger its implementation, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said.

“This is a momentous occasion,” Secretary-General said after the deal was ratified by 72 countries accounting for more than 56 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“Global momentum for the Paris Agreement to enter into force in 2016 has been remarkable. What once seemed unthinkable is now unstoppable. Strong international support for the Paris Agreement entering into force is a testament to the urgency for action, and reflects the consensus of governments that robust global cooperation, grounded in national action, is essential to meet the climate challenge,” he added.

India, the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, had ratified the Paris climate agreement on Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2, becoming the 62nd country to deposit its legal instrument of ratification for the climate pact and bringing the global pact “tantalizingly” close to entering into force.

Mr. Ban had “warmly” congratulated India for ratifying and formally joining the Paris Agreement, and had said India’s leadership moves the world an important step closer toward the 55 per cent threshold needed for the historic agreement’s entry into force this year.

India accounts for 4.1 per cent of the emissions and after it joined the agreement, the Paris pact had needed slightly more than three percentage points to reach the 55 per cent threshold to enter into force.

The requirements for entry into force were satisfied yesterday when Austria, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Malta, Nepal, Portugal and Slovakia, as well as the European Union, deposited their instruments of ratification with the Secretary-General.

The Agreement will now enter into force in time for the Climate Conference (COP 22) in Morocco in November, where countries will convene the first Meeting of the Parties to the Agreement.

Countries that have not yet joined may participate as observers.

The UN Chief however cautioned that the work of implementing the agreement still lay ahead.

“Now we must move from words to deeds and put Paris into action. We need all hands on deck — every part of society must be mobilised to reduce emissions and help communities adapt to inevitable climate impacts,” he stressed.

“I urge all governments and all sectors of society to implement the Paris Agreement in full and to take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and support the most vulnerable in adapting to inevitable climate impacts,” he said.

Welcoming the news that the Paris agreement on climate change will enter into force in 30 days, US President Barack Obama has termed it as a “turning point” for protecting the planet for future generations by avoiding some of the worst consequences of global warming.

“Today is a historic day in the fight to protect our planet for future generations...Today, the world has officially crossed the threshold for the Paris Agreement to take effect. Today, the world meets the moment. And if we follow through on the commitments that this agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet,” Mr. Obama said in his remarks at the Rose Garden of the White House Wednesday.

At the same time, Mr. Obama said Paris Agreement alone will not solve the climate crisis.

“Even if we meet every target embodied in the agreement, we’ll only get to part of where we need to go. But make no mistake, this agreement will help delay or avoid some of the worst consequences of climate change,” he argued.

“It will help other nations ratchet down their dangerous carbon emissions over time, and set bolder targets as technology advances, all under a strong system of transparency that allows each nation to evaluate the progress of all other nations,” he added.

“And by sending a signal that this is going to be our future — a clean energy future — it opens up the floodgates for businesses, and scientists, and engineers to unleash high-tech, low-carbon investment and innovation at a scale that we’ve never seen before,” Mr. Obama asserted.

In a statement, the US Secretary of State John Kerry said enough countries — representing enough of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions — have submitted their instruments to formally join the agreement.

The Paris Agreement will enter into force in 30 days, he said.

“For many years, scientists have been warning us that climate change is real, it is happening now, and, barring global action to change the course our planet is on, it will have devastating impacts in nearly every corner of the world,” he said.

“Today it is crystal clear that we have finally woken up,” Mr. Kerry said.

“The reason we were able to pass the required threshold so early is that many of the largest emitters in the world — including the United States, China, India, the EU and a number of its member states — recognised the need to continue the momentum from Paris and joined swiftly to bring this Agreement into force as quickly as possible,” he said.

In a statement, the Trump campaign slammed Obama administration for the climate change deal, which it alleged would harm US economic interests.

“Politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to make bad deals that undermine the interests of the American people. The Paris Accord is just the latest example,” it said. </s> OSLO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A global agreement to combat climate change will take force after support from European nations sent the accord across an important threshold on Wednesday, prompting U.S. President Barack Obama to hail it as a “historic day” for protecting the planet.

European nations, Canada, Bolivia and Nepal raised backing for the 2015 Paris Agreement to countries representing 56.87 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions, above the 55 percent needed for implementation, a United Nations website showed.

The deal will formally start in 30 days on Nov. 4, four days before the U.S. presidential election in which Republican Donald Trump opposes the accord and Democrat Hillary Clinton strongly supports it.

China and the United States joined up last month in a joint step by the world’s top emitters.

Obama called Wednesday “a historic day in the fight to protect our planet for future generations” and he told reporters on the White House Rose Garden: “If we follow through on the commitments that this Paris agreement embodies, history may well judge it as a turning point for our planet.”

Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Portugal and Malta - European Union nations which have completed domestic ratification and account for about four percent of emissions - formally signed up on Wednesday.

In total, 73 countries out of 195 have ratified the agreement, according to the U.N. website.

“Great job!” tweeted European Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete.

The Europeans brought forward a formal submission of documents to the United Nations from a ceremony planned on Friday, fearing that other nations might ratify and trigger entry into force without them.

“We didn’t want to be upstaged,” an EU diplomat said.

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a statement on the Paris Agreement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., October 5, 2016. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Many praised the rapid ratification of an agreement meant to cut global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, to limit floods, droughts, more powerful storms and rising ocean levels.

“What once seemed unthinkable is now unstoppable,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.

But all said more work was needed.

“It is no exaggeration to say we are in a race against time,” said Thoriq Ibrahim, Environment Minister for the Maldives and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States which fears the impact of rising sea levels.

By contrast, it took eight years for the previous U.N. climate deal, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, to gain enough backing to take effect. It obliged only rich nations to cut emissions and the United States stayed out of it.

Opposition continues in the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress to Democrat Obama’s climate change policies.

Tourists protect themselves from the rain under umbrellas in front of the Eiffel tower as they visit the French capital during summer holidays in Paris, France July 19, 2011. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo

“The Paris climate deal would be disastrous for the American economy,” said House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican.

By contrast, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever and Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, said ratification showed that a shift to a low-carbon economy is “urgent, inevitable, and accelerating faster than we ever believed possible”.

Still, current national pledges for cuts in emissions are insufficient to achieve a Paris goal of limiting a rise in world temperatures to “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

U.N. studies project that average world temperatures are set to rise by 3 degrees (5.4 Fahrenheit) or more by 2100, based on current trends. And this year is expected to prove the warmest since records began in the 19th century, beating 2015. </s> On Saturday, officials from nearly 200 countries agreed to a set of guidelines to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change at the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland.

Here’s what you need to know about the agreement, which is being called the Katowice Climate Package.

What exactly is it?

The new agreement lays out specific measures to fulfil the promises of the Paris Agreement. The terms of the agreement were hotly debated over several days by member countries before being agreed upon.

The UN celebrated the Katowice Climate Package as the beginning of a “new era of global climate change action,” saying it will promote international cooperation on climate change, boost transparency among countries and benefit people from all walks of life.

The new measures will be implemented in 2020.

What was agreed to?

The main achievements of the Katowice Climate Package include an agreement on how to report greenhouse gas emissions and efforts to reduce to them as well as a commitment from wealthy countries to provide financial assistance to poorer countries to help them in cutting emissions, prepare for things such as rising sea levels and pay for damages already caused by climate change.

Officials from 196 countries have agreed to the Katowice Climate Package. Representing every corner of the globe, they include everyone from the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters, such as China and the United States, to middling powers like Canada to tiny Pacific island nations like Tuvalu.

Wait, the U.S. is onboard?

Although U.S. President Donald Trump has questioned the existence of climate change, pulled his country out of the Paris Agreement and promoted the use of coal, the U.S. not only agreed to the Katowice Climate Package but was also one of the biggest champions of creating transparency rules to ensure that no country will be able to shirk their emission-cutting commitments.

Who represented Canada at the conference?

Canada was primarily represented by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna. “Global problems require global solutions,” McKenna tweeted after the Katowice Climate Package had been finalized.

“And somewhat unbelievably, countries around the world came together at (the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference) and stepped up. These days that isn't always the case. It should be celebrated and replicated!”

Were there any sticking points?

Many countries differed sharply in their views of how to make a functioning carbon credit market, which would aim to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions while raising money to help limit global warming. Talks on how to create an emissions trading system will be resumed at the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Chile.

What else was left out?

Large oil exporters like the U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait successfully blocked an attempt to include language about weaning the world off fossil fuels in the agreement. The final text of the agreement also lacks specific 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.
Representatives from 196 nations agree on a rulebook to implement the Paris Agreement for climate change mitigation.