DPI Messages on Paris Agreement

· The Paris agreement is an ambitious, dynamic and universal agreement. It covers all countries and all emissions, and is designed to last.

· The Paris Agreement is a landmark agreement. It solidifies international cooperation for climate change. It provides a way forward.

· This agreement reached here in Paris marks a turning point on how the world will address climate change. It set the world on a pathway toward limiting temperature rise to less than 2 degrees, with an eye on the benefits of achieving the goal of 1.5.

· The Paris Agreement sends a message to the world that countries are serious about addressing climate change. It is a remarkable triumph that the 196 parties to the Convention have reached this agreement.

· It sends a signal to markets that now is the time to invest in the low-emission economy.

· It contains a transparency framework to build mutual trust and confidence.

· It will serve as an important tool in mobilizing finance technological support and capacity building for developing countries.

· It will also help to scale up global efforts to address and minimize loss and damage from climate change.

· The agreement requires all countries to take action, while recognizing their differing situations and circumstances. Under the Agreement, countries are responsible for taking action on both mitigation and adaptation.

· Countries have officially submitted their own nationally determined climate actions. They have an obligation to implement these plans, and if they do, it will bend the curve downward in the projected global temperature rise.

· The agreement not only formalizes the process of developing national plans, it provides a binding requirement to assess and review progress on these plans. This mechanism will require countries to continuously upgrade their commitments and ensure that there will be no backtracking.

· This agreement is a clarion call from governments that they are ready for implementing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

· Paris is a beginning—we now have to implement the Agreement. But we have taken a giant step forward.

12 December 2015