President Obama announced recently that an historic agreement has been reached at the Climate Accord summit in Paris. He mentioned that fighting climate change has been a priority of his administration, and he also specifically thanked Secretary of State John Kerry, the prime minister of France, and the 200 countries participating.
Obama said that the agreement wasn’t perfect – no agreement involving so many countries can be – but that the accord establishes the framework that the world needs to solve the problem of climate change. The agreement gives individual countries the freedom to reduce carbon use by their own methods and provides a mechanism for accountability and transparency when it comes to how much carbon they are using.
It is a flexible document that allows for change as technology advances in the future. Additionally, Obama and other world leaders feel that the agreement marks an important turning point in how humanity is fighting climate change. By signing the accord, participating nations have shown how seriously they take the problem of global warming and that they are able to put aside significant differences to work together to fight a common threat.
Obama stressed that switching from a carbon-based economy is economically viable; however, he said that what’s even more important is that the current generation is making steps to ensure that the planet is not harmed beyond what future generations can repair. He spoke of looking forward to sharing an undamaged planet with his future grandchildren.