国际英语新闻:Nations Unanimously Adopt Paris Climate Agreement

PARIS—Delegates of more than 190 nations meeting in Paris adopted a historic accord Saturday that aims to slow the pace of global warming and for the first time asks all countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

Announcement of the final agreement Saturday evening was greeted with cheers, hugs and prolonged applause at the conference hall in Paris.

The final draft of the agreement was circulated several hours before the meeting concluded, after an all-night work session in which the text was shortened from 43 to 31 pages and simplified.

The agreement aims to keep global temperature increases below two degrees Celsius, provide $100 billion in climate investment to poorer countries, review progress every five years, and peak carbon emissions as soon as possible.

In a statement from the White House Saturday evening, President Obama called the agreement "the best chance we’ve had to save the one planet that we’ve got."

"So I believe this moment can be a turning point for the world," he said.  "We’ve shown that the world has both the will and the ability to take on this challenge."

The president also said that while those who oppose taking action to limit carbon emissions say that doing so will "kill jobs," the agreement will actually create "more of the jobs and economic growth driven by low-carbon investment."

In a tweet, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the deal was "truly a global effort & signals we’re all in this together."

But Senator James Inhofe, the Republican chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, compared the agreement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which President Bill Clinton signed in 1998 but was never ratified by the U.S. Senate.

"This agreement is no more binding than any other 'agreement' from any Conference of the Parties over the last 21 years. Senate leadership has already been outspoken in its positions that the United States is not legally bound to any agreement setting emissions targets or any financial commitment to it without approval by Congress," Inhofe said.

The deal culminates negotiations that have gone on for years, and is the most wide-ranging climate agreement since the Kyoto accord.

On Saturday night, a day after an original self-imposed deadline, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, in the absence of any last minute objections, lay down a gavel and declared the 31-page document had been formally and unanimously adopted.

“This is a small gavel, but it has done big things,” Fabius said.

Fabius joined and raised hands with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others in a gesture of triumph and celebration.

The agreement was adopted after a plea by Ban in the final hours of negotiations.

“The time has come to acknowledge that national interests are best served by acting in the global interest and solidarity,” he told delegates earlier Saturday.