Buried beneath last week’s headlines is the fact that the world made critical progress in the fight against global climate change. After a months-long push by President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the number of countries that have officially joined the Paris Agreement—a global pact to curb greenhouse gas pollution–hit 60.
Together, these countries represent 48 percent of global greenhouse gas pollution. Under the legal structure of the Paris Agreement, the pact won’t take effect until its ratifying parties account for 55 percent of global emissions. That threshold, however, is now in clear reach: Countries representing another 12 percent of global emissions are expected to submit their Paris ratification papers by the end of this year.
The above excerpt was originally published in The Huffington Post.
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