The Paris Agreement is really happening — and it’s about more than climate change

A wave of support from countries around the world has now set up the Paris Agreement — a historic global pact to curb greenhouse gas pollution and build resilience to climate change — to take effect in early November 2016.

As President Obama put it, the Paris Agreement represents “the single-best chance that we have” to protect the planet from climate change. Its promise lies in the fact that it establishes a durable framework of global action in which all countries, both developed and developing, make improved climate commitments over five-year cycles.

But participation in the agreement, which was negotiated by more than 190 countries in December 2015, is not only critical for the planet. It is also critical for the trust among nations that has supported many thousands of international agreements with the United States...
https://thinkprogress.org/paris-agreement-diplomacy-74590f5e13d8#.l1qp3ust4