“From a historical perspective, this will be a great day for the United Nations,” Selwin Hart, the Director of the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team, recently said in reference to this coming Friday, when leaders from more than 160 countries are expected at UN Headquarters to sign the Paris Agreement, adopted last December at the UN climate change conference (COP21).
The event is being preceded on Thursday by a High Level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 global goals to wipe out poverty, fight inequality and tackle climate change over the next 15 years. These are the basis of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by UN Member States last September.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, David Nabarro, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change, told reporters that the signing of the Paris Agreement is crucial because achieving progress in relation to climate change is central to the broader effort of achieving the SDGs.
“Most people who looked at the global situation say that if we don’t succeed in maintaining the world under a 2 degrees Celsius rise, then it’s going to be incredibly difficult to realize the Sustainable Development Goals,” he warned. “And so implementing the Paris agreement is important for promoting prosperity, improving people’s wellbeing, and protecting the environment.”
The universal agreement’s main aim is to keep a global 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 agreement will enter into force 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification or acceptance with the Secretary-General.
On 12 December 2015, the 196 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted the Paris Agreement. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (third right) called the negotiations the “most complicated, most difficult, but most important for humanity.” Also pictured, UNFCCC’s Christiana Figueres; French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and President of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21); and French President François Hollande (right). UN Photo/Mark Garten
For the Paris Agreement to go into effect, it must be signed and ratified by at least 55 Parties to the UNFCCC which account at least an estimated 55 per cent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. Photographer Marko Korosec snapped this image of a tornado funnel in the United States, one of the top emitters that will participate in the 22 April signing ceremony. Photo courtesy of the World Meteorological Organization
What the Paris Agreement means for you depends on where you live. For citizens of Timor-Leste, pictured above, and other small island developing states which are concerned about rising sea levels and rely on environmental resources for survival, ratification of the Agreement is an urgent priority. But the Agreement is vital for all of humanity. UN Photo/Martine Perret
Emissions at a manufacturing complex in Toronto, Canada. The primary aim of the Paris Agreement is to hold global warming below 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, and to strive for 1.5°C if possible. According to science, this is the maximum warming that humanity can tolerate before experiencing the most destructive and dangerous effects of climate change. UN Photo/Kibae Park
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that 2015 was the hottest year on record with temperatures, for the first time ever, about 1°C above the pre-industrial era. In central Haiti, children cooling off in a waterfall in Saut d’Eau. UN Photo/Victoria Hazou
The record temperatures over both land and the ocean surface in 2015 were accompanied by many extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, flooding and severe drought. In South Africa, Alexius Van der Westhuizen photographed this extreme electric storm. Photo courtesy of the World Meteorological Organization
By signing and ratifying the Paris Agreement, Governments agree to work together so that climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions peak “as soon as possible,” followed by “rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with the best available science.” Such science includes renewable energy technologies. Pictured, Ain Beni Mathar Integrated Thermo Solar Combined Cycle Power Plant in Morocco. Photo: World Bank/Dana Smillie
Cuts in emissions are to be made as a result of changes in human activity, such as cleaner energy production and more efficient farming, as well as through carbon-absorbing “sinks,” which include forests. Stacked timber in National Tapajos, the only forest in Brazil, with a management program for sustainable production of industrialized timber. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
The Paris Agreement also unlocks opportunities for farmers, such as this one in Dacca, Bangladesh. The Agreement aims to curb the impact of climate change, without threatening food production. Safeguarding food security and eradicating hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the adverse impacts of climate change, are part of the Preamble of the Paris Agreement. UN Photo/John Isaac
Delivering on these goals will require support and international cooperation– including the scaling up of investments in renewable and clean energy, green bonds, low-emission transport – for nations to build clean, resilient futures. Pictured, the reflection of the United Nations Headquarters building in New York seen from the windshield of an electric car.
A United Nations peacekeeper from Nepal plants a tree in El Fasher, Sudan. The signing of the Paris Agreement on 22 April coincides with International Mother Earth Day. This year’s theme is Trees for the Earth. UN Photo/Albert González Farran
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Also speaking at the press conference, Selwin Hart announced that approximately ten countries, mostly Small Island Developing States, will both sign and ratify the document. Turning to key greenhouse gas emitters, the UN official said China and India intend to ratify it in 2016, an announcement recently made in a joint presidential statement.
“So [we are] gathering momentum for an early entrance into force of the Agreement,” he underlined, noting that generating this momentum is one the UN chief’s key objective at the event, followed by wanting to demonstrate that all segments and sectors of society and the “real economy” are mobilizing in support of ambitious action.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – the UN entity leading climate negotiations – today highlighted the record number of countries set to sign the Agreement, calling it “a critical juncture in a global effort to ensure lasting hopes for secure and peaceful, human development.”
“More carbon in the atmosphere equals more poverty,” said Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of UNFCCC. “We cannot deliver sustainable development without tackling climate change, and we cannot tackle climate change without addressing the root causes of poverty, inequality and unsustainable development patterns.”
According to UN records, the largest ever number of countries to sign an international agreement in one day was in 1982, when 119 countries signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Paris Agreement is expected to break a record in this respect, and ensure as soon as possible that a massive global transformation can begin towards a sustainable future for people everywhere.