Query: 195 countries signed the 2015 Paris Agreement, agreeing to limit global warming and adapt to climate change, partly by protecting nature.

Relevant passages:
2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference <=SEP=> The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference , COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris , France , from 30 November to 12 December 2015 . It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties ( COP ) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties ( CMP ) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol .   The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement , a global agreement on the reduction of climate change , the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it . The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions . On 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) , 174 countries signed the agreement in New York ,  and began adopting it within their own legal systems ( through ratification , acceptance , approval , or accession ) .   According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks , the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius ( ° C ) compared to pre-industrial levels . The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century . In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement , the parties will also `` pursue efforts to '' limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C . The 1.5 ° C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050 , according to some scientists .   Prior to the conference , 146 national climate panels publicly presented draft national climate contributions ( called `` Intended Nationally Determined Contributions '' , INDCs ) . These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100 . For example , the EU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 . The agreement establishes a `` global stocktake '' which revisits the national goals to `` update and enhance '' them every five years beginning 2023 . However , no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement -- as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol .   A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21 , including the Bonn Climate Change Conference , 19 to 23 October 2015 , which produced a draft agreement .

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change <=SEP=> The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) is an international environmental treaty adopted on May 9 , 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . It then entered into force on 21 March 1994 , after a sufficient number of countries had ratified it . The UNFCCC objective is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The framework sets no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . Instead , the framework outlines how specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' or `` Agreements '' ) may be negotiated to specify further action towards the objective of the UNFCCC .   Initially an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee ( INC ) produced the text of the Framework Convention during its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . The UNFCCC was adopted on 9 May 1992 , and opened for signature on 4 June 1992 . The UNFCCC has 197 parties as of December 2015 . The convention enjoys broad legitimacy , largely due to its nearly universal membership .   The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties ( COP ) to assess progress in dealing with climate change . In 1997 , the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012 . The 2010 Cancún agreements state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . The Protocol was amended in 2012 to encompass the period 2013-2020 in the Doha Amendment , which - as of December 2015 - had not entered into force . In 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted , governing emission reductions from 2020 on through commitments of countries in ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions . The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4th , 2016 .   One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and removals , which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions . Updated inventories must be submitted annually by Annex I countries .   The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention , with offices in Haus Carstanjen , and the UN Campus ( known as Langer Eugen ) Bonn , Germany . From 2010 to 2016 the head of the secretariat was Christiana Figueres . In July 2016 , Patricia Espinosa from Mexico succeeded Figueres . The Secretariat , augmented through the parallel efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , aims to gain consensus through meetings and the discussion of various strategies .

Global warming <=SEP=> Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years .   In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing .   Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years .   Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) ,  whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change .   Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .