US praises 'most ambitious' climate change agreement

Washington: Terming the adoption of climate change deal as the "most ambitious climate change agreement in history", the US has said its adoption establishes a long term, durable global framework to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "This is huge: Almost every country in the world just signed on to the Paris Agreement on climate change-thanks to American leadership," US President Barack Obama said in a tweet.

White House in a statement, said more than 190 countries came together to adopt the most ambitious climate change agreement in history. "The Paris Agreement establishes a long term, durable global framework to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions," it said. For the first time, all countries commit to putting forward successive and ambitious, nationally determined climate targets and reporting on their progress towards them using a rigorous, standardised process of review, the White House noted.

Noting that tackling climate change will require shifting global investment flows towards clean energy, forest protection, and climate-resilient infrastructure, the White House said developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable, will need support from the global community as they pursue clean and resilient growth. The Paris Agreement makes real progress on this front by providing a strong, long-term market signal that the world is locking in a low-carbon future, and giving confidence that existing financial commitments will be met, it said.

"We are already making strong progress towards meeting the existing goal to mobilise USD 100 billion from a wide variety of sources, including both public and private, by 2020," the White House said. "The Paris outcome provides further confidence that this goal will be met and that climate finance will continue to flow," it added. The deal provides strong assurance to developing countries that they will be supported as they pursue clean and climate resilient growth, it said.

The deal builds on the unprecedented participation of 187 countries that submitted post-2020 climate action targets in advance of the meeting, and establishes a framework to ratchet up ambition by driving down global emissions in the decades to come, it added.