Climate change: World leaders sign Paris deal

World leaders have agreed at the UN headquarters to ratify the Paris climate deal and get the ball rolling on plans to check global warming.

Held on Earth Day, Friday's ceremony in New York City came four months after the deal was clinched in Paris and marks the first step towards binding countries to the promises they made to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"The era of consumption without consequences is over," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.

"We must intensify efforts to decarbonise our economies. And we must support developing countries in making this transition."

French President Francois Hollande and Canada's Justin Trudeau joined John Kerry, US secretary of state, for the signing ceremony attended by 175 governments, the largest single-day signing of an international agreement.

Kerry carried his granddaughter in his arms, a symbol of the future generations the agreement is aimed at protecting.

While the US, China and India - the world's top greenhouse gas emitters - were not represented at their highest level, leaders of island states such as Fiji, Tuvalu and Kiribati, facing existential threats from rising sea levels, were to present formally the already completed ratification by their parliaments.

"China will finalise domestic legal procedures on its accession before the G20 Hangzhou summit in September this year," China's Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said at the signing ceremony...
  [aljazeera.com]
23/4/16